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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23131330">As When a Poppy or Violet Breaks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellesprit/pseuds/Bellesprit'>Bellesprit</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore, Metamorphoses - Ovid, The Iliad - Homer, The Odyssey - Homer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Romance, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Deception, Enemies to Friends, Friends to Lovers, Horror, I mean does it count if they are immortal, Inaccurate Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore, Love Triangles, Multi, Murder, Sort Of, Underage Drinking</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:21:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23131330</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellesprit/pseuds/Bellesprit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"The kind god tries to warm you back to life, and next endeavors to attend your wound, and stay your parting soul with healing herbs. His skill is no advantage, for the wound is past all art of cure. As if someone, when in a garden, breaks off violets, poppies, or lilies hung from golden stems, then drooping they must hang their withered heads, and gaze down towards the earth beneath them; so, the dying boy's face droops, and his bent neck, a burden to itself, falls back upon his shoulder" - Ovid, Metamorphoses</p><p>Hyacinthus is the new student who is quickly enveloped into schemes of love and war between the teens who resemble the old Greek Gods a little too much.<br/>Psyche is the prettiest girl at school, or at least she would be if it weren't for her enemy Aphrodite who longed for nothing more except to be known as prettier than Psyche.<br/>This is a story of romance and deception following the lives of two famous Greek heroes who are now in the modern world, with no memories of their past or of the dangers that face them if they continue to contend with the fates.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Achilles/Patroclus, Aphrodite/Ares (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Aphrodite/Hephaestus, Apollo/Cassandra (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Apollo/Cyparissus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Apollo/Hyacinthus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Eros/Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore), Hyacinthus/Zephyrus (Ancient Greek Religion &amp; Lore)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Glowing with Gold</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So I basically just re read this whole story and hated my writing so I'm going back and editing all of the chapters. I have everything planned out about what's going to happen so hopefully once I finish editing I'll be able to post like once a week. Thank you to everyone who commented, you guys are the reason I kept going with this project, I really was just going to give up but because of your encouragement I'm going to persevere. Even if only one person likes this story, I will finish it for that person. I love you guys :)</p>
    </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The title of this chapter comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 2, "Phaethon and Phoebus," (translated by Brookes More) which says:<br/>"Glowing with gold, flaming with carbuncles on stately columns raised, refulgent shone the palace of the Sun, with polished dome of ivory gleaming, and with portals twain of burnished silver"<br/>There are going to be a lot of titles based off of Ovid's Metamorphoses so just be prepared.<br/></p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The quiet roar of hundreds of teens entering the school building invaded Hyacinthus’ ears but it all quieted into barely a whisper as his eyes came upon the beautiful campus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus had to blink his eyes rapidly to make sure that what he was seeing was real. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Immaculate green grass surrounding the building was speckled with golden statues that depicted men and women in various acts from playing sports to lounging around.The new school that he was attending seemed to jut out of the ground, cutting the picturesque landscape, but bringing its own type of aesthetic; It almost seemed like an imitation of an old temple with its marble pillars allowing the perfect place for the many teens to lean against, allowing them to look much cooler than they actually were. The bright sun warming the right side of his face only seemed to further Hyacinthus’ belief that this was going to be the start of an amazing year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus reached his hand up to cover his face and looked into the sky near where the sun was resting. He had always found comfort in the consistency of the sun, it was always there and it always would be. Hyacinthus could always count on it for support. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>People pushed past Hyacinthus in a rush to get inside, so he decided it was probably time for him to get a move on. He gave one last look to the sun and then walked into the looming building. It was very beautiful but there was something about it that seemed overwhelming, like he would never be as perfect as the unblemished surfaces. Not to mention, even the people in the building looked like they were marble; carefully trimmed down until it was formed into the ideal form of human beings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Hyacinthus were a better artist, he felt like he could spend hours just painting the intricate details of everything his eyes were taking in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His gaze was one of amazement and glossy-eyed bewilderment when he accidentally backed up into a much taller boy that was standing behind him. Hyacinthus whipped around, intent on quickly apologizing and not making any enemies on his first day of school. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, Hyacinthus was instantly struck speechless when he met the other boy’s eyes. He had striking grey eyes that seemed to glitter in the sunlight that was seeping through the overhead windows. The boy had a slight smile on his face that seemed very kind as he waited for Hyacinthus to either say something or close his mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, excuse me,” Hyacinthus stuttered out, eyes shifting and hand coming up to scratch his nose, “I didn’t see you there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy’s kind smile became a little larger as he responded, “It’s quite alright...” he paused, “What was your name again? I don’t remember seeing you around here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyacinthus, my name’s Hyacinthus.” he paused,  “And you wouldn’t have seen me, I’m only a freshman.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed to Hyacinthus that a look of recognition passed by the tall stranger’s face, but it was quickly wiped away by his genuine smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a beautiful name, like the flower right?” Hyacinthus nodded, “my name is Zephyrus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus nodded again and then looked around warily, trying to find a way to escape this conversation. He really needed to go to the office and get his schedule. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus seemed undeterred, and with an enthusiasm that was the most genuine Hyacinthus had ever seen, he said, “Would you like for me to show you around?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus paused in his search for a moment. Surely it wouldn’t be so bad if he had to continue talking to this boy. Hyacinthus was a lot of things but he certainly wasn’t blind, it was impossible for him to deny the obvious attraction he fell to Zephyrus</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “Well I’m supposed to go talk to the administrators, but I guess if you wanted to show me where they were...” Hycinthus decided. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would like nothing more,” Zephyrus responded seriously then beckoned Hyacinthus with a hand wave into walking through the hallways. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After walking for a few seconds in silence, Hyacinthus had had enough so he turned to the boy strolling next to him, “So, what grade are you in?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus looked over to respond, “I’m a junior, so unfortunately I probably won’t see you around much during the school days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hycinthus gave him a reassuring smile, “Believe me, I’m not that interesting to be around. You’d be bored after the first day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aww, I don’t think that can be true at all,” Zephyrus interjected with a smile on his face, “I mean, we’ve only been talking for, what, a couple minutes and I’m already intrigued.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus huffed and smiled gratefully at him. Before he could think of something witty to say back, another student slammed into him from the side and knocked him into the lockers. Hyacinthus hit the bank with a resounding thud, taking a second to reorient himself, before turning around and seeing who the culprit was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To no one’s surprise, it was just a stupid boy who was playing around with his friends and hadn’t been paying attention to the people around him. Also to no one’s surprise, the boy didn’t even stop to say sorry or even seem to notice he had run into someone, he just kept “wrestling” his friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus rolled his eyes and quickly fixed his backpack strap that was falling off his shoulder. Zephyrus came up to him and looked him up and down as if to make sure that he wasn’t injured at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you alright?” Zephyrus asked him, clear concern in his face. Seriously, this had got to have been the nicest boy that Hyacinthus had ever met in his entire life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” Hyacinthus replied, rolling his shoulders as if to shrug the whole experience off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus didn’t look too convinced, “Don’t pay attention to him at all, that’s Hermes the captain of the track and field team. He’s just an airhead, it wasn’t personal or anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus just smiled coldly before responding with clear contempt in his voice, “How could it have been, it’s not like I know him or anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The reason that Hyacinthus was coming to this new school was because of the experiences he had faced in his old one, mainly bullying. He had started off as not necessarily popular, but most people he knew liked him and he had a couple of friends which was good enough for him. That is, until his parents got divorced and his older brother decided to blame it all on him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus had never really had an amazing relationship with his brother, so he would have been alright if it had just been</span>
  <em>
    <span> him</span>
  </em>
  <span> bullying him. However, it wasn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Hyacinthus wasn’t necessarily the most athletic at the school, he was on the track and field team and he did try to keep at least a little bit in shape. But, his brother was basically the star of the team-- he won first place in practically every meet they competed at, he held school records, and he was loved by everyone including the teachers and coaches. Thus, it wasn’t very hard for him to convince the whole school to turn on Hyacinthus. All he had had to do was spread a couple of rumors of him sleeping around with teachers and, bam, Hyacinthus was scorned by everyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, although he didn’t know this Hermes guy, Hyacinthus had had a lot of terrible experiences with jocks, so he felt like he couldn’t really be blamed for feeling wary about him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rest of the walk through the hallways was filled with silence between the boys but a steady roar of noise from the students surrounding them. Finally, Hyacinthus and Zephyrus reached the office which was in a surprisingly small corner of the school, almost as if they wanted to be hidden from any students who just happened to pass by, </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they entered the room, Zephyrus and Hyacinthus were greeted by the secretary, a tall woman with dark curly hair expertly slicked back into a low chignon. Her outfit was a completely black pantsuit that was only interrupted by a small white rectangular name-tag on her chest that read “Rhea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gave them a sickeningly sweet smile before leading the two of them into the back room which held the principal’s office. Hyacinthus turned to try and make eye contact with Zephyrus and tell him that he didn’t need to come in with him, but Zephyrus was already walking into the office.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A broad shouldered man sat behind a hand-carved desk, reading over papers and making small corrections on them with his red pen. There were no windows in the room, causing it to seem even smaller than it actually was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the three of them entered the room, the principal, Ouranos was his name, looked up and greeted them with a shark-like smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, Zephyrus, nice to see you again, I hope your studies have been going well?” Principal Ouranos asked the older of the two boys.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus just flashed his genuine smile again before responding, “Of course sir, thank you for your interest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ouranos just nodded before turning his sharp smile onto Hyacinthus, “And you must be the new student, what was your name again, Cyparissus?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyacinthus,” Zephyrus interjected, with his smile only faltering for a second. Hyacinthus was glad that Zephyrus had responded for him, since the weight of Ouranos’ eyes seemed to bore into him, and he was afraid that if he had tried to speak, it would come out as a whimper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, yes. The flower Hyacinth. Please take a seat and we’ll discuss your transfer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ouranos proceeded to hand over a class schedule to Hyacinthus and described all of the rules and activities that went around on a normal school day. Hyacinthus was only able to nod along with what he was saying, still too afraid to speak out loud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To Hyacinthus’ relief, Ouranos seemed to like Zephyrus so he allowed him to continue to escort him around for the rest of the day. As the two of them exited the office together, Hyacinthus let out a shaky breath of relief that it was finally over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus gave him a sympathetic look before saying, “Yeah, principal Ouranos can be a bit much but don’t let it bother you. He means well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus looked over, “Well he’s much different than my old principal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What was he like?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s just say I never saw him once throughout my whole three years of junior high.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus let out a laugh before stopping in front of one of the classroom doors, “Here’s your first hour.” He looked at his watch, “there’s only about ten minutes left, so if you want to just quickly introduce yourself, then I’ll be waiting out here to bring you to your next class.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus looked over at him warily, “Don’t you have a class to get to?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but I’m sure Principal Ouranos will inform my teachers that I was showing the new student around. I don’t know what the teachers at your other school were like, but these ones are pretty understanding.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus frowned, “Alright, if you say so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just get in there and stop worrying,” Zephyrus laughed while slightly nudging Hyacinthus into the door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although Zephyrus had none of the same classes as Hyacinthus, he was, without fail, there each time that the bell rang to escort him to his next hour. During those five minutes or so between each class, Hyacinthus and Zephyrus got to know each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus had a very dry sense of humor and most of the time his jokes were aimed at the popular kids, who were accurately called the “gods” at this school. The whole clique (Zephyrus had taken the time to tell Hyacinthus all of their names, but he couldn’t be bothered to remember any of them) were all extremely beautiful from afar but up close they seemed artificial, like they had no personality at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, there was one boy who seemed to stand out to Hyacinthus as being different from the rest of the gang. His name was Apollo, this was one of the few names that he even remembered. He was extremely stunning with curly blond hair and tanned skin, and not to mention, those arms muscles that were barely contained by his uniform’s blazer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although he was beautiful, that much Hyacinthus could not deny, there was something else that seemed to attract him to him. He emanated a sort of warmth that Hyacinthus had previously only felt when standing out in the sun and feeling it’s powerful rays shine on him. Whatever the case, Hyacinthus felt as if he only needed to stand near Apollo and feel the same type of comfort that came to him when looking at the sky near the sun. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, for some reason Zephyrus always seemed to turn cold and angry whenever Apollo drew near, so Hyacinthus decided not to ask him about him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>During lunch, Zephyrus brought Hyacinthus outside where he introduced him to his friends. These were:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boreas, who was big and burly with red curly hair that couldn’t be contained in his generic baseball cap that he quickly removed whenever one of the lunch supervisors walked near them. Although Boreas might look like a meat-headed jock, Hyacinthus learned that he was secretly a bibliophile-- he loved books, modern ones, classics, everything. Whenever he wasn’t caught reading, Boreas would be trying to convince others to pick up the new series that he just finished (however most people just listened dispassionately or ignored him altogether).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Next was Notus who was short but he contained a lot of anger in his small frame. He had beautiful tan skin that looked like bronze in the warm sunlight. Most of the time, if you were looking for Notus all you had to do was listen to the sound of bitching in spanish. Of course, he would always smile at the end, so everyone always knew his rants were simply jokes. Or were they? Notus was very nice to Hyacinthus and instantly invited him into all of his conversations, not wanting him to feel left out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eurus was the next friend who was from an Indian background and at first Hyacinthus thought that he was shy. However, this thought changed when he was caught between an argument between him and Notus about the benefits of wearing a school uniform. After that, Hyacinthus realized that Eurus wasn’t really timid, he was just like a snake, waiting for the perfect time to strike and disarm his enemies. Hyacinthus found that he admired the other boy for this trait</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, there was Psyche who was the most beautiful girl that Hyacinthus had ever seen. She wasn’t beautiful in the traditional way, she wasn’t skinny and tall, instead she seemed pretty average from far away-- she was of normal height, normal weight (maybe with a little more curves than average), plain brown hair that was cut short, and plain brown eyes which were a little bigger than normal, but not anything extraordinary. However, there was something about her that seemed to attract not only all of the boys around him, but also pretty much everyone at the school. Hyacinthus suspected that it was her confidence, she wasn’t afraid to tell people what she thought, but she wasn’t mean about it. She genuinely had a nice spirit about her, and she wanted to help people if they chose it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>These were Zephyrus’s friends which Hyacinthus instantly bonded with, especially Psyche who he chose to sit next to and talk to for most of the lunch period.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t look now,” Psyche started while her large eyes lined in bright blue turned to look at Hyacinthus, “But I think that the popular kids are coming over here... oh and there’s Aphrodite.” Psyche rolled her eyes as she said that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche had told Hyacinthus that she used to be part of the group of popular kids until she got into an argument with Aphrodite, who was literally a model, because her boyfriend at the time, decided that he thought that Psyche was prettier than her. Psyche had said that she was willing to just let it go and keep being friends with Aphrodite, however she refused and since then they have been mortal enemies, or so Psyche told him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, slut.” Aphrodite said to Psyche with a calm look on her face, “Is this your new boy toy? I haven’t seen him around recently, is he a freshman? Wow you really are digging through the bottom of the drawer if you can’t get anyone else to be with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man who was standing next to Aphrodite (for he couldn’t be called anything else than a man from his large stature and face that looked way too chiseled to be one of a teenage boy) slung his arm around Aphrodite’s shoulders and laughed at what his girlfriend said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche kept calmly picking at her sandwich she was eating in front of her before saying, “at least I’m not cheating on my perfectly fine boyfriend for that hunk of meat standing next to you.” She took another bite of her sandwich and then turned to face the man, “What’s your name again? Brutus? Or something equally as manly?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man gave her a sharp grin before saying, “You know my name, after all you definitely heard your mom screaming it last night.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche genuinely laughed before saying, “Wow, I was not expecting you to say a your mom</span>
</p><p>
  <span>joke, Ares, you really are unintentionally funny at times.” With that Psyche picked up her bag from the floor and started to walk past the group of teenagers. “Aren’t you coming Hyacinthus?” She asked him when she noticed that he was still sitting there. The rest of their friend group was a little bit down the table where they were deeply discussing a project that they had to complete in their history class. Surely Zephyrus wouldn’t mind that much if he just had Psyche escort him to his next class? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus nodded before he got up to follow Psyche through the crowd which she had parted with her own air of self confidence. As he was walking through the crowd he heard a voice behind him saying, “Hyacinthus?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus turned around and came face to face with Apollo. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. One Love Exciting, One Repelling Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The title of this chapter come from Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 1, "Daphne and Phoebus," (translated by Brookes More) which says:<br/>"No more he said, but with his wings expanded thence flew lightly to Parnassus, lofty peak. There, from his quiver he plucked arrows twain, most curiously wrought of different art; one love exciting, one repelling love. The dart of love was glittering, gold and sharp, the other had a blunted tip of lead; and with that dull lead dart he shot the Nymph, but with the keen point of the golden dart he pierced the bone and marrow of the God."<br/>If you have never read Metamorphoses I highly encourage you to since it is such a good book that tells a lot of important stories in the Roman mythos (so also Greek)<br/>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>For the most part, Psyche liked to consider herself to be a normal, teenage girl; on the best of days, she only felt slightly self-conscious about her looks, she spent hours on her phone while procrastinating her homework, and she liked to talk to people, even if she </span>
  <em>
    <span>did </span>
  </em>
  <span>sometimes share her problems too much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But, if she was normal, why then was she cursed with becoming friends with such problematic people?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her first real friend, Aphrodite, wouldn’t leave her alone in the beginning and told her they would be friends forever. Then, out of nowhere, </span>
  <em>
    <span>BAM</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that friendship was ruined after their epic fight in freshman year, and now Aphrodite did everything in her power to ruin Psyche’s life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, of course, Psyche </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>to go and make friends with someone who had caught the attention of the man whore, Apollo-- of course, this was not Psyche’s nickname for him, but one that had caught on with the rest of the school. Psyche liked to consider herself a feminist so she didn’t like to slut-shame, but... well he was sort of a slut. Apollo had dated basically anybody at the school who would give him the time of day. Now, he was dating Kassandra who had transferred from their rival school where her brother, Hector, was the captain of the track and field team (Psyche wasn’t really sure why both of their schools were so obsessed with running and jumping, but, then again, she had never been the athletic type). However, after what happened today, Psyche was sure that Apollo and Kassandra’s relationship wouldn’t last much longer. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hyacinthus?” Apollo asked, his arm around Kassandra, as he looked at Psyche’s new friend with wide eyed astonishment. How he knew his name, Psyche had no idea. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>As Hyacinthus turned around and made eye contact with Apollo, the confused look in his eyes was apparent. Obviously, even if Apollo knew Hyacinthus for some reason, Hyacinthus had no idea who this strange boy was. Apollo took a step closer to him, letting his arm drop from around Cassandra’s shoulders, and placed a hand on Hyacinthus’ cheek, gingerly cupping it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Psyche’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion (and let’s be honest, her nose did wrinkle a little in disgust... Apollo </span>
  </em>
  <span>did</span>
  <em>
    <span> already have a girlfriend for heaven’s sake!) and she was going to step in to put a stop to whatever the hell this was, but before she could, a hand grabbed at Apollo’s shoulder and ripped him away.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Unsurprisingly, it was Zephyrus, basically the most possessive person to ever walk the Earth.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>At first, Apollo was shocked, but when he turned around to see who it was, his face grew furious, “If you ever touch me again...” He said out.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“What will you do, Apollo,” Zephyrus spat out his name, “You’ll burn my eyes out? You'll kill me? Good luck with that.” Psyche thought that those were weird threats, but hey, to each their own. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Apollo growled and lunged at him, obviously he had hit a sore spot. Psyche didn’t have to worry that much longer that they were going to kill each other, because just then, Eurus, bless his soul, stepped in.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Boys! enough!” He barely had to raise his voice because everyone around them had gone quiet when they saw the confrontation. Zephyrus and Apollo turned to see who had just yelled at them, and when they realized it was Eurus, who was very rarely angry, they turned away. Psyche knew that they would probably just continue this fight after school, but she couldn’t be bothered with the problems of stupid boys. Right now all she was worried about was Hyacinthus who stood with a shocked look on his face. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The poor baby, Psyche thought to herself, Only here for half a day and he already has two boys trying to kill themselves over him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>After that terrible lunch, the rest of Psyche’s day felt like a walk in the park. It turned out that she had the rest of her classes with Hyacinthus, so she was able to keep the stunned boy company, at the same time guarding him from Zephyrus and Apollo. It’s not that she was going to force him to avoid them for the rest of his life, just until they both cooled down a bit and realized their stupidity. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Psyche escorted Hyacinthus down to the track so he could try out for the team. The season had already started the week before (why the hell do sports start during the summer? It would be against the law if Psyche were in charge) but thankfully the coach let Hyacinthus join. Psyche didn’t really enjoy sports that much, so most of the time when she accompanied her friends to their practices, she would just sit in the stands, doing her homework. After all, she couldn’t be bothered to ride the bus, so they were her ride home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche took up her usual seat right in the middle of the stands near one of her friends, Patroclus, who was already sitting there. Patroclus was previously on the track team, one of the best runners from their school, however he had broken his leg in the beginning of summer. Now he liked to sit in the stands, cheering on his boyfriend, Achilles, one of the captains of the team. They really were the cutest couple at the school, no questions asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Psyche,” Patroclus said, moving his bag so that Psyche could sit down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, Patroclus. How are they looking out there?” Psyche and Patroclus always talked about the team while they sat up there. Most of the time it was just them saying which one was the hottest... Patroclus always said Achilles so it wasn’t that fun of a game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think that new boy out there is running around the track right now so they can decide if they want to put him in long or short distance.” Hermes was the long distance captain and Achilles was the sprinting captain, and apparently they were both vying for Hyacinthus to be on their teams. “Also,” Patroclus continued, “I heard that the boy wants to try the discus. Apparently he was really good at that at his old school.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wow,” Psyche started, sarcasm dripping from her voice, “I didn’t know you were such a gossip, Patroclus.” She finished with a friendly shove at his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” He protested without any malice, “All of this is coming from Achilles, he’s the one who learns all the gossip from the Muses.” Not only was Achilles the best sprinter in this region, but he was also an amazing musician. The Muses was the all-women’s choir at their school, and since Achilles sometimes played the piano as accompaniment for them, he learned all of their gossip. Of course, then Achilles would tell Patroclus and Patroclus in turn would tell Psyche. That’s how far it would get though because Psyche refused to tell people’s secrets, she liked to save them all up until she could use them as a sort of blackmail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche saw Patroclus waving from the corner of her eye and she looked down to see his boyfriend, Achilles, on the track, walking up to the bleachers with a concerned look on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Psyche, do you mind coming down here for a second?” Achilles asked, his eyes moving back and forth from the bleachers to a group of athletes that seemed to have formed in the middle of the field. “Hyacinthus said you’re his friend? He asked for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche looked over at Patroclus who also had a worried look on his face and together they went down to the field where, upon getting closer, they could hear yelling and cheering. Achilles pushed his way into the center of the group to create a path for the three of them, and to her shock and horror, Psyche saw a fight going on between Apollo and Zephyrus. Psyche suspected that they were going to get after each other, after she saw their argument that morning, but she didn’t think it was going to be this soon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche turned to Achilles who was steading Patroclus who had forgotten his crutches on the way down, and she said, “Don’t just stand there... stop them.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Achilles looked confused for a moment, but then he shook his head to clear it and gently pushed Patroclus so that he was leaning against Psyche and stepped between the two teenagers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Achilles tried to gently pull Apollo and Zephyrus apart, however, all he got for his efforts was a punch in the face, causing a steady stream of blood to start to trickle down his nose. Psyche could clearly see the anger building up in Achilles eyes, and quickly boiling over to the point where he grabbed Apollo’s shirt in his fist, and used the other hand to hit him square in the jaw, causing his head to snap back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Achilles!” Patroclus yelled worriedly, which then caused Achilles to turn to look at him in distraction, allowing Apollo to get out of his grip and tackle him to the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche looked around for the coach, but instead all she saw was Hyacinthus with his hands covering his face, in between the crowd of people who all had their phones out, recording the fight that was going on. Psyche made sure that Patroclus was steady, and then she pushed her way through the fringes of the crowd to get to Hyacinthus, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around to face her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” She asked the scared boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Apollo tried to stop me from doing the discus throw for some reason, but Zephyrus said he couldn’t tell me what to do. Then Apollo shoved him and they started fighting” He shook his head, not really understanding what was happening. Psyche gave him a quick shove so that he slightly entered the middle of the circle. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing?” Hyacinthus demanded, whipping back around to face her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well they won’t hit you,” Psyche was really sure that this was true, but she was hoping, “so you need to stop them from fighting and both getting expelled.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus did just that, narrowly avoiding a fist flying at his face from Zephyrus, before Apollo pulled Hyacinthus behind him to prevent him from getting hurt. Hyacinthus, however, twisted to get out of his grip and stood in front of him, “Stop it!” He yelled, “I don’t like either of you, so you can just stop fighting to try and gain my affection because you’ll never get it.” He then stormed off and pushed through the crowd, presumably to leave. The three boys all looked at each other before going their separate directions, the crowd also dispersed. Psyche contemplated going to find Hyacinthus, but then she decided that she had had enough of his drama for one day, and she didn’t want to wait anymore to get a ride from Zephyrus, so she decided to walk home. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she walked through the school to get to the front entrance, Psyche came across Aphrodite and her boyfriend, Hephaestus, standing with another boy whom Psyche had never met or seen before. As she passed  them, Psyche could see that none of the three really wanted to be there. However much Psyche might hate Aphrodite, she knew that she really wasn’t happy being with Hephaestus. Although most people believe that she hates him because of superficial reasons (after all, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>is </span>
  </em>
  <span>deformed and she’s beautiful), Psyche knew that wasn’t the case. Back in the beginning of their relationship, he and Aphrodite really seemed to like each other, and Psyche had no idea why that had changed and why she was now cheating on him. He really was very nice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was obvious that the other boy was somehow related to Aphrodite, probably her brother; they were both tall and skinny, and were really tan with a spattering of freckles. The difference, however, was that Aphrodite had beautiful dirty blonde hair while the boy’s hair was so blond that it could almost be considered white. But it didn’t make him look old, he had a sort of youthful glow about him that would probably never go away. Psyche met the hazel eyes of the boy as she walked past and they held that eye contact for a couple of seconds before she walked out the door and it was broken.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Psyche quickly got home (she lived about an hour walking distance away from the school, but luckily she was intercepted by Boreas who was able to give her a ride home) and got to work on her homework, finally giving up when she realized that she would stop for minutes at a time, just staring into the distance and thinking about that boy who was with Aphrodite. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mind was plagued with thoughts about that beautiful boy, so it was no surprise to her at all that she dreamed about him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Psyche was walking through an unknown forest with a box in her hands that she didn’t recognize. She was also dressed in strange clothing, it looked like the remnants of something that a princess would have worn in Ancient Greece, including a small silver circlet on her head which she assumed was a crown. However, the outfit was in ruins, dirty and ripped like she had just spent the night in a forest. She also noticed, as she looked down, that her belly was a little bit swollen, Psyche realized with a start that she was pregnant. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Psyche was very curious to see what was in the box, and she was suddenly struck with the thought that she was very tired. She knew that there was a reason that she was holding the box and that she was supposed to give it to someone, but everytime she tried to remember, the memory was foggy; right there but she just couldn’t quite reach it. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So, she found a small rock to sit on, and she looked at the inscription on the box. It was obviously written in Greek, but to her surprise, Psyche was able to read it. It simply said </span>
  </em>
  <span>Beauty. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now, Psyche wouldn’t consider herself to be a very vain person, but she knew that she didn’t look very good right now, and if there was Beauty inside, maybe she could use it just to fix herself up a little bit. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So, Psyche slowly opened the box, but to her surprise, a bright light flashed and she was thrown against the ground, hitting her head against a rock. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This was it, Psyche was going to die and her poor babe along with her. However, just as she was blinking out of consciousness, she saw an angel flying in from the heavens. As he got closer, Psyche realized that it wasn’t in fact an angel, but instead it was the boy that she had seen with Aphrodite in the hallway. He gathered her into his arms and she remembered his name-- Eros. </span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I have read Song of Achilles but I don't really agree with how Madeline Miller portrays Patroclus, so in this story I am attempting to make him more of an equal to Achilles' like how Homer saw it<br/>Of course he's injured right now so you won't see his abilities till later in the story ;)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Too High and You Will Scorch the Roof of Heaven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Once again, the title of this chapter comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 2, Phaethon and Phoebus, (this time it is the translation by A.S. Kline) which says:<br/>"And do not please yourself, taking a path straight through the five zones of heaven! The track runs obliquely in a wide curve, and bounded by the three central regions, avoids the southern pole and the Arctic north. This is your road, you will clearly see my wheel-marks, and so that heaven and earth receive equal warmth, do not sink down too far or heave the chariot into the upper air! Too high and you will scorch the roof of heaven: too low, the earth. The middle way is safest."<br/>Please enjoy this chapter that is a little longer (to make up for the delay)!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>After storming away from the fight on the track, Hyacinthus went to the locker room to pack up his bag. He decided that he no longer wanted to try-out for the team this year, maybe he would join another team... well he wasn’t actually that good at anything else so maybe he would spend this semester getting caught up to everyone else at this obviously elite school.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, as he was walking out of the locker room, he was stopped from his musings by a frantic looking Zephyrus. He had a couple of red spots on his face and arms that were clearly going to turn into bruises, but besides that he looked fine. Zephyrus caught Hyacinthus’ eyes and ran up to try and talk to him, but Hyacinthus shook his head and attempted to walk past. He was stopped by Zephyrus’ hand reaching out and grabbing his arm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hyacinthus, wait... I can explain,” Zephyrus began. Hyacinthus ripped his arm out of his grip and began walking. “Please, I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything... can we talk.” By the end Zephyrus was yelling so that Hyacinthus, who was now a couple feet away, could still hear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What.” It wasn’t really a question, “ Zephyrus I don’t want to hear any excuses. I didn’t come to this school to instantly get caught up in some sort of feud or drama. Can you explain to me why both you and Apollo are so obsessed with me?” Hyacinthus was fuming. Who were these two boys to tell him that he couldn’t participate in the discus, his favorite sport since he was a child?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus sighed and looked away for a second. Hyacinthus scoffed and kept walking, “Wait, stop. I’ll tell you what happened.” But Hyacinthus was now nearing the door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There was this boy a couple of years ago,” this caused Hyacinthus to stop, not yet turning around, “Both me and Apollo were in love with him, and well something happened that caused the boy to be injured so bad that he was put in the hospital.” Zephyrus continued, still not meeting Hyacinthus’ eyes. </span>
</p><p><span>“What happened?” Hyacinthus inquired, finally turning around.</span><span><br/></span> <span>Zephyrus looked up and met his eyes, “We were at track practice, and, well, Apollo threw a discus at him because he was so jealous that we were spending time together. The discus hit him in the head so hard... you could see the white from his skull.” Zephyrus turned away, tears pooling in his eyes, “The thing is, this boy looked very similar to you, so I think that’s why Apollo didn’t want you to do the discus throw. He was probably traumatized from seeing a pretty boy” Hyacinthus was caught off guard from the compliment, “on the ground with blood pooling out of his head, he didn’t want to see it again.” Zephyrus gave a watery laugh, tears now coming out of his eyes. </span></p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus walked up to him and wiped the tears from his cheeks, “The boy, is he alright?” He asked, curious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus smiled and nodded, “I thought I would never see him again, but he came back...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus smiled back and rested his forehead against Zephyrus’ shoulder, embracing him, “Good, I’m glad. Will I ever meet him?” Zephyrus wrapped his arms around Hyacinthus and buried his head in his curls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably not, he moved away that same year.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus pulled away and looked up, his mind that was so desperate for romance betrayed him and he began talking, “Look, when I said that I would never like you or Apollo, I lied. Zephyrus, I like you. I know we’ve barely met, but I feel like I’ve known you for longer...” Hyacinthus took a step back, “I’m sorry, that sounds strange.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zephyrus shook his head and took Hyacinthus’ hands, “No, I feel the same way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They embraced again and Hyacinthus thought, maybe this wasn’t the worst day of his life. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next day, Hyacinthus met up with Psyche at the entrance of the school where they planned on walking to their first class of the day together. There was something off about Psyche, however, she was looking around at every face that entered the courtyard, as if trying to spot someone. She was turned away from Hyacinthus when he walked up so she didn’t notice him until he tapped her shoulder and she whirled around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Hyacinthus,” Psyche looked surprised, but not scared. The moment that she made eye contact with Hyacinthus the sound of a door opened and Psyche turned around to look at who had exited the building. It obviously wasn’t the person she was looking for because she turned back around with a sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus replied, “Hey, Psyche... are you looking for someone?” Psyche looked reluctant to answer but she finally did after a couple of seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s nothing... just... do you ever have those dreams that you can’t stop thinking about the whole day?” Hyacinthus nodded, he knew that feeling quite well.. “Well, I had this weird dream last night and Aphrodite’s brother was in it. The thing is that I didn’t even know that she had a brother till yesterday, it’s like the sight of him awoke something in my mind, causing me to have this </span>
  <em>
    <span>strange </span>
  </em>
  <span>dream. And... well... it felt real, like I had actually experienced the events in it. It doesn’t really matter, but I want to see him today and ask if I know him or something.” Hyacinthus nodded again, “anyways... What happened yesterday after I left the track practice? It didn’t look good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus smiled and repeated Zephyrus’ story to Psyche and told her that they were going on a date that day after school, at the cafe across the street. Psyche congratulated Hyacinthus and then the two of them walked to their first hour of the day together, hearing the bell ring, warning the students that there was only five minutes for them to get to their classes on time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they entered the English classroom together, Psyche took her regular seat in the back while Hyacinthus sat in the same seat he had sat in yesterday, which was in the front. It seemed like no one wanted to be that close to the teacher, but Hyacinthus prefered it since he had had terrible eyesight since he was a child. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The teacher, Chiron (He refused to be called anything else), started the class with a short welcome and then told them to get back to reading their assignment in their textbooks. It was a book about ancient mythologies, and right now they were reading about the Norse stories. Hyacinthus, however, had thought that the reading assignment was homework, so he had already finished it the night before. He went up to tell the teacher, who told him that he could get a head start on the next assignment so Hyacinthus went back to his seat and opened up the book to the next chapter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Hyacinthus was surprised to see a rip in his books where some pages were torn out. Unfortunately, those pages were where the assignment began, so Hyacinthus was forced to go back up to Chiron, who gave him his personal copy to use during the class period</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sat back down again and opened up the pages, but, as he did, a loose sheet of paper fell out, and he picked it up, intending to simply place it back in the book and pretend as if he had never seen it. However, he was stopped by the title at the top of the page which read “Mythologies of the Greek and Roman peoples.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus frowned at the page in confusion, it was a common fact that no one knew anything about the Greek and Roman traditions, since it had all been lost to time. He looked up to make sure that Chiron wasn’t watching him and he unfolded the paper so he could read everything that had been written on it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were two sides of the paper, one read “The Tragic Story of Phaethon and Phoebus” while the other read “The Grief of Cyparissus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He started on “The Tragic Story of Phaethon and Phoebus” which said; </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There once was a boy named Phaethon whose mother claimed that his father was Phoebus, the god of the sun whom many knew as Apollo,” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus paused in his reading to wonder if the Apollo from his school was named after the god, but then remembered that his parents had never heard this story before. In fact, Hyacinthus realized that he was probably one of few that had ever heard this story in the world. He continued with renewed vigour.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phaethon, wanting to prove to his friends that his mother’s claim was true, decided to go to the temple of Phoebus at night where he approached the god and demanded to know the authenticity of his parentage. Of course, Phoebus agreed with the statement that Phaethon’s mother had made, and wanting to please his son, Phoebus swore on the Stygian Lake that he would give him anything he wanted to prove that he was his father. In those days, swearing by the River Styx, which was one of the rivers that boarded the Underworld which was home to the god Pluto, resulted in a vow that was unbreakable by anyone, even the gods themselves. Phoebus would soon regret this promise for Phaethon demanded to be allowed to ride the chariot that pulled the sun across the sky everyday. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phoebus pleaded with Phaethon to rethink this request because the horses that pulled the chariot were so hard to control, and it would be so easy to fall off the chariot or be killed by one of the constellations in the sky. Phoebus hardly knew his son, but he still did not wish harm on his own blood. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“However, Phaethon refused to be convinced so Phoebus reluctantly brought him to his chariot which Phaethon mounted and then began the ascent into the heavens. However, not long after the horses realised that their normal master was not in the seat, so they knew that they would be able to easily overpower the other person who was in the chariot for Phoebus was the only thing that could successfully control these beasts, not even Jupiter the king of the gods, could claim this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phaethon was taken on a wild ride throughout the skies where he had to dodge the attacks of the scorpion, the  bull, and the lion who were all eager to take a chunk out of this inexperienced mortal boy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The powerful horses then drove the chariot down to the Earth where they flew so close that they burned mountains and valleys and dried up whole rivers with their intense heat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“After a while of this mess, Jupiter decided that he had had enough of this boy trying to be as powerful as a god, so he struck the chariot with a bolt of lightning, burning the horses and killing the boy, plunging the whole thing into the water where the river god, Eriadnus, took the body of Phaethon and brought him to his sisters, the Heliads. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Heliads mourned the loss of their brother and on his tomb they wrote:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘</span>
  <b>HERE PHAETHON LIES WHO THE SUN’S JOURNEY MADE</b>
</p><p>
  <b>DARED ALL THOUGH HE BY WEAKNESS WAS BETRAYED</b>
  <span>’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thus ends the story of Phaethon, the young boy who was ultimately destroyed by his youthfulness and inexperience, but also by the fool hearted promises that his father made to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus closed the book with a frown on his face and slipped the page back into the book, right before the bell rang, signaling the end of the hour. When he went up to Chiron and handed the book back to him, Chiron thanked him and said he could borrow the book again next time. Hyacinthus nodded, still pondering the story he had read, and turned to walk to his next class by himself, since Psyche didn’t share the same chemistry hour with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he walked, he couldn’t help but think that Phoebus seemed to remind him of someone he knew, someone who only meant the best but was sort of like a child in that he acted impulsively. However, Hyacinthus couldn’t quite remember who this person was that he was thinking about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As he walked past the locker banks, he heard someone calling his name and turned around to see Eurus, Zephyrus’s friend, who was looking at him with a sort of strange look on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello Eurus,” Hyacinthus said as he approached the older boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eurus frowned at him, then plastered on a fake smile and responded, “Hyacinthus, I heard that you are going on a date with Zephyrus tonight” at Hyacinthus’ nod, he continued, “Just, be careful.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus frowned then asked, “What do you mean? Aren’t you friends with Zephyrus?” Eurus nodded with a distracted look on his face before responding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but... sometimes he can get very possessive. I’m sure it’ll be fine but... I don’t want to see you hurt again.” With that, Eurus walked away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t till later that night that Hyacinthus realized he had said “again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>--</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Right after school, Hyacinthus met up with Zephyrus who was waiting near the doors, with a bouquet of beautiful roses in his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When did you have time to get those?” Hyacinthus asked with a surprised smile on his face as he reached for the flowers that Zephyrus held out to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t have a class for the last period of the day so I drove to the store to buy them for you... I hope you like them?” Zephyrus ended like a question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hyacinthus responded that he loved roses and then the two of them walked hand in hand to the cafe that was across the street from the school. As he entered into the door that Zephyrus held open for him, he noticed Apollo across the street staring at them. Hyacinthus, feeling emboldened by something (maybe it was the bright sun beaming down on his face), but maybe being a little bit reckless (like Phaethon from the story, he thought with chagrin) gave Apollo the finger and then walked into the cafe with Zephyrus following right behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They sat together for hours, right till it closed at eight, talking about their lives and getting to know each other. Apparently Zephyrus had met Eurus, Notus, and Boreas, when they were all babies and they had been close friends since then. Hyacinthus told him about his own family, which only consisted of his father Oebalus. He told him that he had left his old school after it was revealed that his father was losing all of his money. The original school that he had attended had been way too expensive for Oebalus to continue paying for, so instead they came to this prestigious school, which surprisingly didn’t cost anything, you only had to get accepted into it. Hyacinthus was still surprised that he was able to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After basically getting kicked out by the workers at the cafe who were trying to close down, Hyacinthus and Zephyrus walked over to the school parking lot where they Zephyrus’s car was. He drove Hyacinthus to his house, claiming that he couldn’t let him go home without eating. After all, at the cafe all they had had was coffee. Hyacinthus didn’t mind, since it was Friday so he didn’t have to get any homework done for the next day. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they approached the house, Hyacinthus realized that it was a mansion, to say the least. It looked similar to the school, almost like a Greek temple. As they entered the beautiful doors, Hyacinthus felt a soft, almost warm, wind that he hadn’t felt anywhere else. Hyacinthus shrugged it off, and walked into the massive house. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside, there were beautiful floral bouquets and bright lights coming from ornate lamps. The whole house reminded Hyacinithus of spring; the colors were pastel and bright and there was a faint fruity and florid scent. Zephyrus led him into the kitchen which matched the rest of the house in it’s grandeur, and he sat him down at a counter as he reached into the fridge and grabbed out a container of leftovers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two sat together and conversed a little bit more and Hyacinthus asked him where Zephyrus’ parents were. He claimed that they were on a business trip and wouldn’t be back till the following week. For a second, Hyacinthus was surprised that they would leave Zephyrus alone for so long, but then he remembered that he was senior so he was probably eighteen or almost eighteen, unlike Hyacinthus who was only sixteen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For dessert, Zephyrus pulled a honey cake out of the pantry and cut off generous slices for the two of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love honey cake!” Hyacinthus exclaimed as he pulled the plate towards him and dug in with vigour. Zephyrus smiled sadly at him and ate with smaller bites, savouring the taste, and the sight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Zephyrus dropped Hyacinthus at his house, which was really small, and he felt a little bit ashamed about it, although Zephyrus didn’t seem to mind, he turned to him and thanked him for the wonderful evening. Zephyrus smiled, standing a bit back with his hands in the pockets of his expensive looking trousers. Hyacinthus turned to open the door but stopped for a second and stood on his toes to press a small kiss to Zephyrus’ cheek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good night,” Hyacinthus said with a smile, his cheeks tinged red but he could see that Zephyrus’ were too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good night, Hyacinthus.”</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The story that Hyacinthus reads is my own interpretation based off of the story in Metamorphoses but also the story that I have learned in my mythology class. The only part that is taken directly from Ovid is the inscription that was written on Phaethon's tomb.<br/>Zephyrus is such a tricky boi... is he evil or not?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Whole World Shuddered With Horror</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Title comes from Metamorphoses by Ovid, translated by A.S. Kline, Book 1, "Lycaon is turned into a wolf" which reads:<br/>"All the gods murmured aloud and, zealously and eagerly, demanded punishment of the man who committed such actions. When the impious band of conspirators were burning to drown the name of Rome in Caesar’s blood, the human race was suddenly terrified by fear of just such a disaster, and the whole world shuddered with horror."</p>
<p>Hey guys, so I'm sorry it has been so long since I updated, but I'm back :). Hopefully I'll be updating much more frequently now until I get this story finished...</p>
<p>I appreciate everyone's support so much, I can't even express it with words. I feel like this fandom (or at least those of us who read fanfics instead of studying myths at university 😉) is small compared to others, so I'm glad that you all take the time to read my stories and comment and like them. </p>
<p>This is for you.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Psyche sat through her English turned mythology class as she tried in vain to concentrate on the reading assignment about the religion of some people from thousands of years ago. She just couldn’t be bothered to really care. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As she was trying her hardest not to nod off, the bell finally rang and Psyche quickly stood up with the rest of her class to pack all of her stuff into her backpack and then head out. However, as she was looking through the door to the hallway, she saw a familiar white shock of hair making its way through the narrow corridors; it was Eros.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche quickly ran out with her books and papers still in her hands, not having enough time to shove them into her backpack before she pushed her way in front of her classmates to get into the hallway. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche looked up and down the corridors, trying to catch a glimpse of Eros, but to her dismay she couldn’t seem to find him. Unfortunately, she did see Aphrodite who was looking at her from across the hall with a glare on her face. Before Psyche could turn and quickly walk in the other direction, Aphrodite came up to her and yanked on her shoulder, turning her around.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, I saw you eyeing my brother… don’t you know that he’s way out of your league.” She sneered at Psyche. Psyche just rolled her eyes and attempted to get out of her grip, but it was much too tight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look, Aphrodite I don’t want your brother. In fact, I wasn’t even looking at anyone as I was walking out of the class. You must be delusional.” Psyche claimed, however her statement was clearly false as she continued to look through the hallways to find Aphrodite’s brother. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up. I can recognize when someone has a crush better than anyone else in the world and you can quote me on that.” Aphrodite’s sharp fingernails dug into Psyche’s shoulders when Psyche scrunched her nose in confusion, “All I’m saying is that if you don’t stop trying to come onto my brother, then you won’t be happy with the consequences.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whatever Aphrodite,” Psyche said, still trying to get her to remove her hand, “I’ll stop </span>
  <em>
    <span>looking</span>
  </em>
  <span> at your brother… now can you let me go to class?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aphrodite just peered down at her for a couple more seconds, sneer still clear on her face, before letting her go and turning around to walk in the other direction. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche rolled her now sore shoulder and stood in the hallway for just a couple more seconds before she heard the warning bell. Dammit! She only had one more minute to get to the other side of the school for her next class. Fuck Aphrodite. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At the end of the day, Psyche met Patroclus in the stands of the football stadium. This time he had a bag of chips sitting on the bleachers near him, and he would occasionally pause his loud cheering to grab a handful. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Having fun?” Psyche asked with a laugh as she sat next to her friend. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patroclus looked over at her with clear joy in his eyes and he exclaimed, “They’re doing a competition tournament, four people each round… Achilles is winning, of course, but your boy, Hyacinthus? Is doing well too.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche smiled and nudged him with her shoulder, “He’s not my boy, I mean, I barely even know him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them made bets on who would come in each place. Achilles, predictably won, and to their surprise, Hyacinthus was able to get fourth place. After this competition had occurred, the real practice began and Patroclus stood up, claiming that he wanted to take a walk to stretch out his legs. He grabbed his crutches and started the descent down the stairs, almost slipping and falling at least five times. Psyche rolled her eyes at his antics and came next to him, letting him lean on her as they slowly made their way. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry about this,” Patroclus said apologetically, “Normally Achilles would be there to help me get down.” He said this with an obvious love-stuck gaze in his eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I don’t mind,” Psyche replied, “And besides, I don’t want you to become, you know,  </span>
  <em>
    <span>codependent </span>
  </em>
  <span>or anything.” The two of them laughed together and they were finally at the bottom of the steps. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As they made their way around the large stadium, Patroclus decided that he wanted to walk along the path in the forest around the school. Psyche thought that it was a bad idea, but decided that he was stubborn enough to just go without her if she said no, so she decided it was probably best to help him. God forbid he get hurt and Psyche feels Achilles wrath. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As they walked together through the forest, they made compainablel talk, nothing important just complaining about their classes and such. Psyche was surprised to hear that Patroclus actually wasn’t doing too well in their English class (she was lucky that basically all of her friends had the same schedule as her) and so she offered to tutor him. It wasn’t as if Patroclus was an idiot or anything, it just seemed like he couldn’t quite grasp the intricate and hidden meanings behind each mythological story (but, honestly, Psyche couldn’t either, but she was really good at faking). </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh…” Patroclus groaned loudly, “I just wish that I could get out of this stupid cast and finally go running again.” When most people thought of Patroclus, they would have never assumed that he was also one of the best runners on the track team. Psyche assumed that this was because he always was around Achilles who could overshadow even the greatest Olympic athlete in the world. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can never understand why you understand such a boring activity such as this… it’s so monotonous.” Psyche smiled as she retorted to Patroclus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patroclus smiled back, “Well, yeah it can be ‘monotonous’ but, I suppose it’s better when you have a companion.” Psyche laughed and rolled her eyes at the dreamy gaze on his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After about ten minutes of walking, Psyche and Patroclus happened upon a sort of clearing in the middle of the woods. Although Psyche rarely went on walks throughout the forest, </span>
  <em>
    <span>obviously</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she couldn’t remember seeing this type of area. It was very strange because there seemed to be nothing growing in it, no trees or flowers or even grass. But, there was an unusual object in the center of it, it seemed to be a sort of rectangular slab of stone. As she approached it, Psyche noticed, to her surprise, that it seemed to be spotted with a sort of reddish paint… almost like blood. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is this place?” Patroclus asked Psyche, limping over to her after he left his crutches leaning on a tree outside of the clearing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche hesitated before shrugging her shoulders and answering, “I don’t know… I’ve never seen a place like this before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she was lying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche, the night before, had had another one of her strange dreams. However, this time it didn’t feature Aphrodite’s brother, like the other one had. Instead, it was her with a group of women all circling a stone slab with a dead ram on top, and to her horror and shock, the ram’s throat was slit without any preamble and a strange prayer was said. Psyche couldn’t remember exactly what it said, but she could faintly remember a name that reminded her of Aphrodite. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Anyways, as the two of them were walking, and limping, around the strange clearing, they heard the slight sound of footsteps approaching from the distance. Psyche made the split second decision to pull Patroclus with her behind some bushes so that the people who were approaching wouldn’t see them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wha--” Patroclus started before Psyche put a hand up to his mouth and a finger up to her own in an attempt to shush him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They sat there in silence for a couple of seconds while the sounds of footsteps gradually became louder and louder. Suddenly, they could also hear a person that seemed to be sobbing as they were speaking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please, please, let me go. I swear I won’t tell anyone and in fact you’ll never have to see me again. I’ll move to another school, another country… just please let me go.” The person let out another sob at the end of that sentence. There was a sound of something hard hitting the person, and then there was only whimpering as they walked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche looked over to make eye contact with Patroclus, and in a moment that sent a cold chill through her marrow, she noticed that Patroclus’ crutches were still leaning on the tree where he had left them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whoever was out there would surely notice the crutches and then catch the two of them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> Patroclus noticed Psyche’s eyes growing wide, causing him to swiftly turn around. Psyche knew that he had come to the same realization that she had when he let out a soft gasp of fear. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll get them.” Psyche whispered and then started to crawl over to the tree, trying in vain to not snap any twigs or crunch any leaves.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> Just as she had finished slowly lowering the two pieces of metal, the small group broke through the treeline and Psyche had to quickly duck beneath the bushes that were in front of her. At first, Psyche hadn’t noticed who the small group was because there was something off about them, like they were older and more rugged before. However, she had a rude-awakening as she realized that she knew two of the three teens that had just emerged. Hera and Zeus were both walking with a short distance between the two of them for they were dragging another child with one of their hands on each of his arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were obvious lines around their eyes, almost as if they had just aged thirty years in the span of an hour. They also just seemed to be less perfect before, it was well known that the “gods” were basically all perfect human beings with no flaws, but these two had dark circles under their eyes and dirt under their fingernails. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As they approached the stone slab in the center of the clearing, the boy in between them lifted his head and Psyche had to restrain herself from inhaling sharply as she saw his face. It was Cyparissus, one of her old friends when she was with the “gods” because he had dated Apollo briefly. However, that wasn’t what surprised her, instead it was because of the state of his face. It was bloodied and bruised, almost to the point where it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard </span>
  </em>
  <span>to recognize him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were clear streaks on his face where tears were still streaming, and he began to open his mouth, Psyche assumed to plead again, but before he could get anything out, Zeus had tied a strip of fabric around his mouth. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Should have done this earlier,” Zeus said with his deep and bellowing voice that sounded a bit weaker than normal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes well, it doesn’t really matter now does it.” Hera’s voice also lacked a certain </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>, almost like she was sick. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche watched as the couple placed Cyparissus onto the table and Zeus held him down while Hera walked over to a tree near the edge of the clearing and pulled out a wickedly sharp looking knife. She held it up into the air and said some words in a language that wasn’t English, but Psyche couldn’t identify it, she just knew that the beauty of the words seemed to juxtapose with the horrors of the situation. Hera rose the knife into the air, continuing her speech.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then she plunged it into Cyparissus' neck.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cyparissus’ eyes went wide and he rested on the slab, obvious pain in his eyes, for a devastating five minutes before finally he stopped squirming and died. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This time, Psyche had to place her hand over her mouth to prevent the sound of her gasp from being audible. She looked across the clearing to see Patroclus through the bushes, and he seemed to be in the same sort of shock as she was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the blood spilled from his neck, Hera and Zeus both scooped handfuls of it and poured it over themselves. To Psyche’s shock, their faces seemed to grow younger and younger, until they were back to how they looked on a regular day. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But this was no regular day. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche and Patroclus had to suffer the gory scene for about another hour while Zeus and Hera dug a shallow grave for Cyparissus, not even bothering to mark it in anyway. They threw his body into the pit without any ceremony and then quickly threw his body into it. Then, to Psyche’s horror, they started kissing, intensely. At this point, she couldn’t take it anymore and she wasn’t prepared to watch as these two had sex while covered in blood, over the grave of the man they had just killed. She guessed that they were making enough noise to cover up any sounds of her walking away, so she slowly started to crawl through the bush, with Patroclus’ crutch in hand, until she had gotten a safeish distance away from the clearing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Psyche stood up, however, she felt a hand grasp her shoulder and she started. As she turned around, Psyche prayed that it was neither Zeus nor Hera, and that this wouldn’t be the day that she died.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was Patroclus.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche let out a sigh of relief, and the two of them quickly made their way back to the school with traumatized looks on their faces. Not daring to talk, just in case the deadly duo were nearby.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As they finally got onto the football field (it was practically empty since it was already five o’clock and the short practice had already ended half an hour before), the two saw Achilles looking around in the middle of the field with his bag in hand, already changed and showered. Patroclus let out a cry of relief and dropped the crutches, rushing over as quickly as his injured leg let him, and embraced Achilles, gripping the other boy tightly who had dropped his bag and ran over the instant he saw Patroclus starting to limp.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Achilles tried in vain to ask Patroclus what had happened because the boy was sobbing heavily into his shoulder. Achilles looked over to Psyche with a confused look on his face. Psyche sighed and walked over a couple of steps until she was nearer the couple.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened?” Achilles asked Psyche, rubbing Patroclus’ back gently.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche wiped a few stray tears from her eyes before drawing herself up to her full height and</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>looking Achilles right in the eyes, “I don't... I don't really know. But, I think we need to get help.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After a lot of discussion (and crying) between the three of them, Psyche made the executive decision that she would tell Chiron about what they saw tomorrow during the school day. Normally, after witnessing a full blown murder, it would be in everyone’s best interest to go straight to the police. However, this was out of the question because it was well known in the town of Olympus, the police were all corrupt </span>
  <em>
    <span>and </span>
  </em>
  <span>the chief was Hera’s father. There would be absolutely no point in trying to get him to convict his daughter and her boyfriend, and in fact it would probably be worse since then he would probably tell the murderous duo, and Psyche and Patroclus might be the next two dead. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They also couldn’t tell principal Ouranos since he was Zeus’ grandfather. It was a small shitty world they all lived in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After saying goodbye to her friends, Psyche made her way back to the school where she would see if her other friends were waiting for her so that they could give her a ride. She didn’t really think that they would be, they weren’t that devoted, but she could always hope. As she neared the back entrance of the building, a quick flash of a shadow went across the corner of her eye.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What if it was Zeus and Hera? Did they see her in the forest? Was this going to be her last few seconds on Earth before she was brutally murdered like Cyparissus?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Psyche waited for the inevitable blow that would cause her death, she was shocked out of her fear when she noticed that the shadow was nothing more than Eros. He was rapidly approaching her with a-- was that scared?-- look on his face. He quickly grabbed Psyche’s shoulders and steered her towards the side of the building that was covered with shadows so that no one could see her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, let go of me,” Psyche protested, squirming around till she finally got out of his grips. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Eros said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now that they were so near each other, Psyche noticed that Eros had beautiful green eyes that also seemed to reflect a sort of rainbow color in them. However, that’s not what else she noticed about him, he had huge bags under his eyes that seemed to tell that he hadn’t slept in a month at least. This imperfection was the only thing that seemed off about him, however, and besides that he seemed like he could fit in perfectly with the “gods.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Psyche was reflecting about this handsome boy who was near her, Eros’ gaze was shifting around worriedly, as if he was trying to make sure that no one else had seen the two of them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, what’s wrong?” Psyche asked, her gaze softening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eros’ glance finally stopped and he looked her in the eyes, however his scared expression never left, “look, I know you saw something in the forest,” Psyche’s eyes narrowed, how could he have known? “No, shhh, I just have to finish this.” Eros held up his hand as Psyche opened her mouth to say something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eros continued, “You cannot tell anyone about what you saw out there, ok? I know it’s terrible, but if you tell anyone, something much worse will happen to you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you threatening me?” Psyche asked, taking a step back from him to try and defend herself if need be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? No, I... just please, listen to me. I can’t really explain it right now, but if you don’t tell anyone then I swear I will tell you what happened, just not yet.” Eros walked closer as he was talking and placed a hand on her shoulder, pleading Psyche with his eyes and words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche sighed, “Alright, I won’t tell anyone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eros smiled, relief clearly present in his gaze, and turned around as if to walk away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait!” Psyche stopped him, she was determined to figure out what was going on with him and those strange dreams she was having. However, just as Eros turned around, another voice could be heard a distance away from them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Psyche!” Psyche turned around in relief, it was just Eurus, “We’ve been looking everywhere for you! Are you coming or what?” He held the car keys in his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche nodded but then turned back around to try and tell Eros that she wanted to talk to him the next day. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Eros was gone. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you liked this new chapter. I didn't mean for this story to have a sort of horror aspect to it, but, what are you gonna do? </p>
<p>Anyways, please comment and fingers crossed I'll have the new chapter up by next week. </p>
<p>Love you all!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Favorites of Gods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Title comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Brookes More, Book 10, "Cyparissus" which reads: <br/>"When he tried the chords by touching with his thumb, and was convinced the notes were all in harmony, although attuned to various melody, he raised his voice and sang: “Oh my loved mother, Muse, from Jove inspire my song—for all things yield, to the unequalled sway of Jove—oh, I have sung so often Jupiter's great power before this day, and in a wilder strain, I've sung the giants and victorious bolts hurled on Phlegraean plains. But now I need the gentler touch; for I would sing of boys, the favorites of Gods, and even of maids who had to pay the penalty of wrong.”</p>
<p>I realized that this timeline might be confusing, so just to clear it up a bit:<br/>The chapters alter from Hyacinthus' point of view to Psyche's point of view and chapter 1 &amp; 2 take place on the same day, 3 &amp; 4 take place on the same day, and so on so forth...</p>
<p>Now, I know what you're thinking, "But she just updated yesterday? Normally it takes her like a month to finish one chapter." <br/>I know, I know<br/>I guess I was just feeling inspired today so I spent like four hours writing it and "editing" it.<br/>Also, I want to try and get most of this done before July so I can work on my novel for Camp NaNoWriMo... so hopefully more updates frequently  🤞<br/>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When Hyacinthus arrived at school the following day, he was still buzzing with the memory of the fantastic date that he had gone on with Zephyrus. He was thinking about how Zephyrus had seemed to him like some immortal god as they were walking from the cafe to his house while the sun was just on the cusp of falling below the horizon. It was strange, although normally Hyacinthus could practically </span>
  <em>
    <span>only </span>
  </em>
  <span>find comfort in the sun and its presence, he felt like it was the nighttime when Zephyrus came out of his shell and seemed to be even more handsome than before. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was almost like Zephyrus had something against the sun's very existence, which didn't make much sense but it was practically impossible for Hyacinthus to disregard the slight sense of disgust that came from Zephyrus' upturned nose whenever he stepped out into the day. Hyacinthus shook his head though. There was no way that Zephyrus could have something personal against a giant ball of gas, thousands of miles away... he probably just burnt easily... or something. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was so busy ruminating on these thoughts that he almost ran into Apollo, who seemed to be waiting outside of the school door for him. He also realized that he forgot to wait for Psyche to walk in with her, so instead of opening the can of worms that would be inevitable if he spoke to Apollo, Hyacinthus turned around and started walking away. However, he didn't get far before he felt a hand on his arm, beckoning him to turn around. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus shrugged his shoulder to dislodge the hand and continued walking. Seriously, what was with it with these students and their complete and utter lack of personal space?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hyacinthus, please wait." Apollo was still trying to get the attention of Hyacinthus, who finally huffed and turned around.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Apollo, listen, Zephyrus told me what happened between you guys," complete and utter shock passed by Apollo's face but Hyacinthus ignored it, continuing, "But I don't really care that you think I look too much like this mysterious boy who apparently got hurt. All I care about is the fact that I should be allowed to throw the discus, a sport that I care a lot about and have spent so long dedicated to practicing. So can you just save your excuses for someone who cares?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo seemed hurt as he answered, "I didn't come to talk to you to tell you you couldn't play..." Apollo shook his head as if dislodging that thought from his brain, "I just wanted to apologize, my actions were completely inexcusable and I shouldn't have tried to stop you. I am truly and utterly sorry."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sighed and shut his eyes for a moment, "It's alright, I forgive you. Just don't do it again, ok? I know that you almost killed someone, but you don't have to take it out on me."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At that, Apollo's eyes widened astronomically, and he took a slight step forward, "What do you mean 'almost killed someone?'"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus scrunched his nose, confused. Had Zephyrus lied to him? "Well, it's just... Zephyrus told me you accidentally threw a discus at another boy's head and he almost died from it."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo's eyes narrowed in anger, "</span>
  <em>
    <span>That little</span>
  </em>
  <span>... I didn't throw it at his head, I threw it and a... well a..." at this Apollo seemed to deflate for a second, "Some freak wind picked up and blew it into the other boy's head, I guess... it wasn't really my fault."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ah, I didn't... well I didn't know that. I'm sorry." Hyacinthus stepped up and put a comforting hand on Apollo's shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo just laughed bitterly and shook his head, "If my sister were here, she'd just tell me to 'woman up' and stop moping about." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Where is she, then?" Hyacinthus asked, not remembering Zephyrus telling him that Apollo had any siblings. Maybe she was much older or younger?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo closed his eyes and took a few seconds before answering, "She's dead."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus' eyes widened in horror, "I am so sorry, I didn't mean to--"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It's alright, it's my fault for bringing her up."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus didn't really know what to do, he was terrible at comforting people, but luckily he didn't have to contemplate much longer since two seconds later, heavy stomping footsteps could be heard, approaching the duo. The two of them quickly turned to see the source of the sound. It was Zephyrus, a cross look on his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Once Zephyrus had reached the two of them, he pushed his way in between them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What are you doing, Phoebus?" Hyacinthus' eyes widened almost comically as he heard what Zephyrus called Apollo. It was just like in the story he had read from Chiron's book.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo rolled his eyes at Zephyrus' antics, "not that it's any of your business, but I was just apologizing to Hyacinthus here about track practice."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus could see Zephyrus audibly sigh and deflate as he heard what Apollo said, "Well, that's good of you," Zephyrus said. However, he still hadn't moved from between the two of them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"And," Apollo said, obviously not finished with what he was saying, "I was going to invite him to try the discus again. After all," He paused, glancing around Zephyrus to make eye contact with Hyacinthus, "I looked around in your school's records and saw that you were the top thrower for junior high. Our discus team, well, to put it frankly, sucks. We could use someone like you."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus felt his cheeks warming slightly before he nodded his head and turned to Zephyrus, "We should probably get going, I'm sure the bell will ring soon." He then turned to Apollo, "Thank you... for everything."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apollo smiled at him, then turned and started walking into the building. Hyacinthus then grabbed Zephyrus hand, trying to take the slight scowl off of his face, and led him towards the entrance. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You know," Hyacinthus began, "Eurus was right." Zephyrus turned to face him, his frown being replaced with confusion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Right about what?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus smiled and walked for a couple more seconds before responding, "You are one possessive bastard." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus gave Zephyrus a quick squeeze of his hand before entering his English classroom, not bothering to say goodbye. He really likes Zephyrus, don't get him wrong, but... come on, did he really have to be that possessive when it came to Apollo? All that was happening was an innocent conversation, when Zephyrus came out of nowhere and tried to glare Apollo into submission. Hyacinthus just sighed, however, and sat down. Maybe one day he would figure out the real reason that the two hated each other, because there was no way that he would believe that bullshit excuse about the boy with the discus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before Hyacinthus could think on this further, he was interrupted by the sound of Chiron, his teacher, walking into the class and beginning the day by stating that they would finally finish the chapter of the reading and then the next day they would continue on to the discussion portion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Chiron dismissed the class into their own little reading groups, Hyacinthus approached the desk and got the teacher's copy of the book. As he sat down in his chair, Hyacinthus was glad to see that the page with the Greek myths was still in there, so he quickly glanced left and right to make sure no one was watching him, then slid it out and began reading 'The Story of Cyparissus.':</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>"Once there was a beautiful stag beloved by everyone in the village near where he roamed. He had beautiful antlers that were large enough to give ample shade for his own head, and they were made of a gold that sparkled brightly in the sunlight. This stag also possessed the softest fur on his neck he allowed everyone, even strangers, to pet, putting the absolute trust in the world.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>In that town, there was also a boy named Cyparissus. He was beloved by the god Phoebus for his beauty and his gentle nature, but he was also the favorite of the stag. This was because Cyparissus was the one who led this stag to the greenest and freshest pastures for him to roam and feed. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>One day, however, while the stag was laying under the shade of a large tree, resting its head after the long day he had had, Cyparissus threw a javelin and impaled the creature, killing it instantly. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Cyparissus, recognizing his mistake, ran over to the stag and threw himself over the body, weeping and groaning over the loss of his dearest friend.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Phoebus Apollo, hearing the sounds of his beloved, quickly rushed down from the heavens and was struck with the sight of the boy, inconsolable with tears running down his beautiful face. After recognizing the god, Cyparissus rushed over to him and got down on his knees, begging to be taken away from his misery. At first, Phoebus did not want to help Cyparissus, for he did not want him to leave him like so many of his other lovers had, but after recognizing that there was no other way, Phoebus turned the boy into a Cypress tree. Then he left there, weeping and groaning over the loss of his beloved.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>A while later, Orpheus sat under that very tree that had once been the boy Cyparissus, and he sang to the birds and the deer and the plants. He sang about all the boys and all the girls who had been loved by the gods, and who had suffered because of this."</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After reading this story, Hyacinthus placed the book down, a little stunned by the ending of it. He thought this "Phoebus" guy had the worst of luck; first his son was killed in the flaming chariot, then he had to endure the death of his lover. Once again, Hyacinthus was struck with the thought Apollo and "Phoebus" were the same person. Especially after Zephyrus explicitly called him Phoebus to his face. There was something strange going on here, it couldn’t be a coincidence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While ruminating on these thoughts, Hyacinthus noticed that the bell had just recently rung, and the rest of the students were packing up to go to their next hour. He stood up and walked over to Chiron's desk, handing him back the book, reluctantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yes, Hyacinthus?" Chiron asked, noticing his hesitation, "Do you need something?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus blinked out of his daze before responding, "Not really, no... it's just... well never mind."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Certainly if there is anything you need clarifying in the stories you read, I'd be very much happy to help. I know it can be confusing at times." Chiron gave him a soft smile, reassuring Hyacinthus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, really, I'm fine..." Hyacinthus paused, "Actually, there is something."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well, go on."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus cleared his throat before continuing, "I know that the stories and myths from ancient Greece and Rome have been lost to time, but are you certain that there are no remaining records at all? It just doesn't seem that likely that no one would know </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything </span>
  </em>
  <span>about them."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a slight twinkle of what looked like mischief that passed over Chiron's eyes when he responded, "I'm certain that more people know than you think. Now you best get along, I don't want you missing your next class." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron then turned around, putting the book down on the shelf behind him and ending the conversation. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If only Hyacinthus knew what he had meant by this clear riddle. Who else had heard the stories of Cyparissus and Phaethon... did Zephyrus? Is that why he called Apollo, Phoebus? Hyacinthus was determined to find out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At lunch, Hyacinthus was surprised to see that neither Psyche nor Zephyrus were sitting at the usual table (although they had only been to school for about three days so far, the seating arrangements were already decided and impossible to change). When he asked Notus about them, he claimed that he had no idea where Zephyrus was, but that Psyche was probably sitting with her other friends somewhere else. Eurus, luckily, could tell Hyacinthus that Zephyrus was finishing up a quiz in his math class that he had right before lunch. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Honestly, Hyacinthus thought, who gave a quiz on the fourth day of school?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he sat, picking at his food, while glancing around trying to find either of his friends, he noticed Apollo who was quickly approaching their table with a lunch tray in hand. Eurus, Boreas, and Notus also seemed to notice the other teen, and they all glanced over with clear shock written over their faces. Boreas let the French fry fall out of his now gaping mouth. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was confused because he didn't really understand why these boys would be so surprised by the approach of Apollo, but they moved over to let him sit down next to them without a single word of protest. The other three boys returned to their meager lunches, occasionally glancing up to make sure that Apollo's arrival wasn't some kind of hallucination.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hey," Apollo said a soft smile on his face, "I hope you don't mind me sitting here, I just don't really think I'd be welcome at my other table right now."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I mean you could literally go to any other seat--" Notus was interrupted in his statement by Eurus jamming an elbow into his ribs and giving Apollo a sweet smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"We're glad you chose to sit here. How are you?" Eurus seemed to have a fairly close relationship with Apollo since they both went into a friendly conversation, although it could just be because Eurus was nice to literally anyone he ever met, though. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apparently Apollo had just broken up with his girlfriend, Kassandra, and since she was friends with some of the other "gods" he felt that it would be awkward to sit at the table with her right now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It was a mutual breakup," Apollo assured, making eye-contact with Hyacinthus, "But I think we just need some space right now."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus had to turn away from Apollo's eyes that seemed to burn holes into him, although not in an unpleasant way. Almost like the pleasure you get from sitting outside in the sun all day, only to come inside and look in the mirror to see that you are covered in burns. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Turning his gaze away from Apollo, Hyacinthus could see out the window and notice that it was a beautiful day outside; the sky was a pale blue color and there were hardly any clouds to block the rays of the sun. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ooh, can we eat outside?" Hyacinthus asked, turning to his three friends.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Boreas shrugged, "I don't see why not..."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ah, good... I love eating out in the sun, it's so... comforting." Hyacinthus blushed and tilted his head towards the ground, "sorry that was a little awkward."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked back to the rest of the boys at the table and they all seemed to have varying expressions on their face from a sadness (Eurus) to unbridled joy (Apollo). His grin was almost as bright as the sun that Hyacinthus had just gazed at.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well, what are you waiting for?" Apollo asked, standing up with a smile still covering his face, "Let's give the boy what he wants."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The five of them slowly made their way to the outdoor seating— simple stone benches that seemed to dot the garden in an unorganized pattern— but Eurus grabbed Hyacinthus' arm, causing him to stay back for a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yes?" Hyacinthus asked confused and just yearning to feel the sun's rays on him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eurus paused before responding with a sigh, "Just don't talk about the sun when Zephyrus is here... ok? I know it sounds strange, but I don't think he would appreciate it that much."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus frowned, "I'm getting the idea that there' are a lot of things that I can't talk about with Zephyrus who is, might I add, my boyfriend."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sighing again Eurus shook his head, "I know, I know, but just, please trust me on this... he means well he can just be, a little sensitive I guess."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"To people talking about the sun." Hyacinthus stated incredulously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You know what, just either don't ask him or do... I can't be bothered to keep trying to protect his sensibilities. If he wants to tell you why he hates the sun, he will." With that, Eurus stormed away and sat on the bench near Boreas and Notus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus shook his head to get rid of the confusion before deciding that he just wouldn't ask Zephyrus about it. Like Eurus said, if he wanted to tell him he would, and if he didn't tell him... then possibly they really weren't meant to be.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While walking to his group of friends, Hyacinthus was a little dismayed to notice that there was no room left on the bench that Eurus stormed to, so he was forced to sit next to Apollo on the other one which was a bit down the path. Apollo gave him a bright smile as he sat, and Hyacinthus returned it shyly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You know," Apollo said, "I love the sun, too. To me, it feels like a representation of my mood; when it's out I'm optimistic, and when it's gone, I know it's going to be a bad day. You know?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus nodded and was about to respond before he heard someone yelling his name.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hyacinthus!" He turned around to see Zephyrus standing a little way back on the path in the beautiful garden featuring flowers of every size, color, and shape.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, the beauty of the garden was diminished slightly by the stern expression that covered Zephyrus' face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Oh, hey Zephyrus... Eurus told me you were finishing a quiz. How did it go?" Hyacinthus asked, a smile on his face to lighten Zephyrus' mood a little.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It worked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the other boy made his way to where Hyacinthus and Apollo were sat, his angry features softened into a much more calm demeanor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus pushed his way in between the two boys before going on about his math class and how stupid it was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus could only make eye-contact with Apollo one more time before lunch was over... and he was surprised to see a look of grief deep in his bright, green eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After track practice that day, and a successful try-out for the discus team if he said so himself, Hyacinthus made his way to his home with Zephyrus who claimed that it wasn't safe for him to walk home by himself. This wasn't true since he didn't live that far from the school and it was still daylight outside (but Hyacinthus wasn't complaining about the chance to spend more time with his boyfriend). </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They spent the whole walk to his home talking about anything and everything and they filled their brains with knowledge of the other, just content to bask in each other for a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus introduced Zephyrus to his father who seemed to like him even more than he did, and he had to pry him away from the small talk that his dad made with him while they were cleaning up after dinner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Once again, Hyacinthus noticed that his boyfriend seemed to become much more comfortable once the sun had gone down, but he again decided not to question him about it. Presumably he just had a fear of the sun... it wasn't unheard of.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luckily, there was no school the next day since the first week of school was always one day short, so Zephyrus could stay much later than he normally would. 11 o'clock found the two of them cuddling on Hyacinthus' bed, watching some rerun of a stupid 80s show was on the TV. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You should probably get going now." Hyacinthus struggled to say, not wanting to leave Zephyrus' warm embrace. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus looked at his watch and made a face, "Yeah, you're probably right."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them made their way slowly downstairs where Zephyrus said goodbye to Hyacinthus' dad who invited him over any time. Then the couple went to the front door and began their goodbyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Do you want to come over tomorrow?" Zephyrus asked Hyacinthus, "My parents are still gone so we can do anything."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus nodded with a grin on his face, "And you can help me with my stupid homework."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Of course," Zephyrus responded, a genuinely beautiful smile gracing his masculine features. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was an awkward pause in the conversation when the two boys didn't know what to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well, bye, I guess..." Hyacinthus trailed off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus nodded before placing a hand on Hyacinthus' cheek, intent clear as he leaned down and placed a feather-light kiss on Hyacinthus' lips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Goodbye."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's all beginning to come into a full circle. Will Zephyrus and Apollo ever get over their stupid feud? And poor Hyacinthus, stuck in their drama. <br/>(Also Apollo and Zephyrus can get it... let's just be honest)<br/>Next chapter will be Psyche's point of view 😊</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Love Imprisoned</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm finally getting away from only using Metamorphoses for Chapter titles. This title comes from Cupid and Psyche by Apuleius which reads:<br/>"It is a difficult matter to keep love imprisoned."<br/>We're almost halfway done! It's finally getting exciting.<br/>I hope you enjoy this slighter longer than normal chapter and the drama it holds.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The day after the disaster in the woods, Psyche met up with Patroclus and Achilles at lunch to ask them when they thought would be the best time to talk to Chiron about the murder. It was a strange feeling to Psyche to not sit next to her "designated" seat, but that sense was quickly overwhelmed by her paranoia. What if Zeus and Hera had seen her and Patroclus?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Another thought quickly struck Psyche as she remembered her second class that day which normally featured Cyparissus as one of the students in it. Of course, he wasn't there that day-- it was still so hard to wrap her head around the fact that someone she knew was dead-- but no one seemed worried about it. In fact, she had asked the boy sitting next to her, Phaethon, if he knew anything, but he simply shrugged and said he was probably sick. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche finally reached the small, secluded corner of the lunchroom where Achilles and Patroclus usually sat. Psyche just then realized that they didn't really have any friends besides herself. There was that girl from their rival school... What was her name again? Brianna?... but for the most part, they only really interacted with one another. Psyche didn't think that that was very healthy for their relationship or their sanity, but hey, far be it from her to say that Achilles even was sane in the first place. Everyone knew about the infamous tantrum (for a lack of better word) that he threw when he learned that Patroclus' injury was because of Kassandra's other brother, Paris. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Achilles went crazy on the boy and beat him up so bad that his face remained bruised for the summer. Of course, Achilles was never arrested or anything because the police were corrupt and if Paris tried to get him convicted, then since he had attacked Patroclus, and he would probably also face charges. But then again, Patroclus probably would rather die than try to get revenge on Paris. He was very sweet. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche sat down across from the two aforementioned boys and started picking at her sandwich. She had just remembered the words that Eros had said to her the day before, and now Psyche was trying to come up with a gentle way of saying to them that they shouldn't tell anyone of what they saw. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Did you talk to Chiron?" Achilles asked, not even bothering to greet her... but then again, neither had she. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Not yet," Psyche said hesitantly, "But, guys, maybe it would be best if we didn't tell anyone about this... at least not now."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shocked, Patroclus said, "Why not? We can't just let this murder--" Achilles shushed him as the people around them turned to see what the commotion was about. Patroclus continued, whispering now, "We can't just let this murder go unpunished. What if it happens to someone else? What if it happens to us?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Achilles nodded, "Yeah, Psyche, we have to tell someone. This is really serious... not just some game."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche sighed, even though she had known that they wouldn't take this suggestion easily. But what could she say instead? She couldn't very well tell them that she wanted to keep the murders a secret because some random boy told her to. Psyche wasn't even sure herself why she trusted Eros so much, but somewhere, in her heart, she felt that she could have faith in him. For some reason, Psyche simply knew that he would never lead her astray. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Look," Psyche said, "I know it sounds preposterous to even mention such a thing," the boys nodded at her, "But I really think that telling them would only lead to terrible consequences for us, and they would probably get off scot-free."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Achilles narrowed his eyes at her before saying, "Did Zeus and Hera talk to you about this? Did they threaten you to keep quiet? I swear I will rip their fuckin--" Achilles had started standing up and Patroclus and Psyche had to put hands on his shoulders to sit him back down. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, no. I don't think they even know we were there, or at least I hope they don't. It's just..." Psyche paused contemplating if she should tell them the truth. What the hell, if they thought she was crazy then at least she had other friends who would believe her sanity, "You know Aphrodite, right? Well she has this brother named Eros. You might have seen him around, he's tall with really light blond hair and eyes that are almost rainbow--"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yes, I know him." Patroclus interrupted, "But what does he have to do with the story? He seems to me that he just likes to spend time alone, he doesn't really have any friends."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A burst of pity shot through Psyche before she responded, "I was getting there. Anyway, so I didn't even know he existed, which is weird right considering I used to be Aphrodite's best friend. Anyways. So I started seeing him more often after the first time, and yesterday, when I was walking to the parking lot to get home, Eros was there. He told me that I shouldn't tell anyone about what we saw, that something bad would happen to us if I did."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche placed her elbows on the table and then her face in her hands, "Look, I don't know why, but I trust him. I think we should keep what we saw a secret. At least for now. Until we figure out what it was all about."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two boys seemed to contemplate this for a while, looking at each other and seeming to converse through looks alone, and then finally they both turned to Psyche and nodded their heads.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"We won't tell anyone," Patroclus said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"But just for now." Achilles interrupted, "If anything else happens, I won't hesitate to call the police. Or something."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche nodded, that was fair. "Look, I really appreciate you guys listening to me on this. And don't worry, I will definitely come with you to tell the police if another student dies."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche turned to Patroclus who seemed to have a wistful look on his face as he gazed out the window behind Psyche.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What is it?" Achilles asked him, placing a gentle hand on Patroclus' shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It's just so strange that two students from our school just murdered someone. Like I swear I had just spoken to Cyparissus yesterday morning. And now he's dead. I guess I just don't know how to feel about it, it hasn't really registered in my brain yet that we just witnessed a murder. You know?" Patroclus said in response. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche smiled in a comforting way before saying, "I know... it's a lot to take in. But we'll get through it, together. All three of us. Zeus and Hera will be caught and Cyparissus will get the justice that he deserves."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Let's hope so." Achilles sighed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were about five more minutes of silence, then the bell rang and the three of them separated, going to their next classes with feelings of anxiety but also determination. Psyche, thankfully, had a free period next so she went into the bathroom to clean off the oil that had built up on her face throughout the morning, then sit in the library and study the intricate lessons of chemistry. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She entered the frankly small bathroom and set herself up in front of the grimy mirror with paper towel in hand, getting to work at blotting. However, a faint whimpering coming from behind her stopped her in the middle of her actions. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At first, Psyche was content at ignoring the sounds coming from the stall, but she found herself unable to resist being nosy when the cries didn't stop after a minute. Maybe someone actually needed help. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hello?" Psyche asked warily, lightly hand rapping on the door a few times, "Are you alright in there?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I'm fine, go away." A voice said from inside. The voice seemed very familiar to Psyche but she couldn't quite remember who it was. Unless...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Aphrodite?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door opened, pushing Psyche back as she saw the normally immaculate form of her arch-nemesis standing in the frame, mascara streaked down her hair covered face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche stared at her a while before Aphrodite said, "Are you going to move," she paused to wipe at her nose with the back of her hand, "Or are we just planning on standing here until school's out."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before she could answer, Aphrodite pushed her hair behind her ears and Psyche was greeted with the sight of a large bruise covering half of her face. It was a mottled yellow and green color and it didn't look like it was that old. In fact, Psyche knew that Aphrodite must have just gotten it because she had seemed perfectly fine that very morning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What the hell, Aphrodite?" Psyche asked, still not allowing her to walk past to the sinks, "Did Ares do this to you? I swear I will rip that boy's--"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It wasn't Ares," Aphrodite interrupted, a stern look on her face, "And it wasn't Hephaestus either, if you were getting that idea." Psyche hadn't even thought about him till Aphrodite brought Hephaestus up. "Now let me get past."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally stepping aside, Psyche started her interrogation again, "Then who was it, Aphrodite? Just tell me."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aphrodite turned the sink on and was using a tissue to wipe the makeup that was running down her flawless skin. "It was no one, Psyche." She said, "And besides, I didn't know that you even cared at this point. Actually, I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been you who attacked me."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche felt her own eyes widen incredulously, "WHAT? I would never-- and besides, you were the one who started hating me for no reason, I never did anything to provoke you."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aphrodite turned to her while saying, "You are seriously so ignorant sometimes."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche was ready to get into this argument, before she caught sight of Aphrodite pulling her small makeup bag out of her backpack and grabbing the concealer to presumably cover her bruise. Psyche instead said, "Look, I don't really want to get into your delusions now," Aphrodite scoffed, interrupting her, "But I actually do care about you, and I want to know who did this to you so they can be expelled or whatever."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Why are you so sure that they are even in high school?" Aphrodite said while in the middle of blending the concealer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"An adult assaulted you?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, I didn't mean that..."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Then who was it, Aphrodite? Just tell me."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aphrodite sighed while putting down everything in her hands and placing them on Psyche's shoulders. Her beautiful, red manicure looked out-of-place resting atop Psyche's favorite striped shirt which was now faded from overuse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Psyche, I appreciate your concern, I really do." Aphrodite said to her, "But I can't tell you, you just have to believe me that it won't happen again and I, as well as everyone at this school is safe."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche had a hard time believing that seeing that a student had just been murdered, but she pushed that thought out of her head and simply nodded at Aphrodite, "Alright, I believe you."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aphrodite gave her a soft smile before turning back to the mirror and saying, "Good. Now are you just going to stand there, or help me pick which lipstick matches my outfit the best."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche giggled as Aphrodite pulled out two vastly different lip colors, and the two of them easily slipped back into the roles of best friends, at least for the hour.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even after all the terrible events that had occurred the past two days, Psyche walked home with a spring in her step and heart full of happiness. She had decided to skip the car ride with the boys since it was such a beautiful day and she wanted to walk through the community gardens. She walked down the sidewalk, even taking the time to wave to the few adults who didn't feel intimidated by her youth, what is it with older people being scared of teens? Like they're afraid they'll catch their acne and eagerness to make terrible decisions. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally, she arrived at the rusty iron gates that led to the strangely large gardens. Anyone in the community was allowed to have their own section of the plant whatever they wanted, and Psyche had even tried once. Her sunflowers, however, had died basically a month later since she completely forgot about them, and she couldn't rely on the kindness of others to take the time to care for her own plants as well as her own. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Although she had failed in her own addition to the garden, Psyche still liked to take a walk through the tangled mess of vines and leaves, smelling the fragrant flowers and occasionally meeting some gardener who was making their harvest and let her try their fruits and vegetables. It's true what they say, local produce tastes the best. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Psyche arrived at her favorite spot in the town-- a stone bench under the shadow of a couple of trees-- but she stopped in her tracks when she saw the small crowd surrounding one of the trees. Psyche pushed her way through three men and to her surprise, came up to Apollo (presumably he had just come from track practice, judging  who was kneeling near the tree, putting some weird fertilizer or something on it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What's going on?" She asked Apollo, kneeling down in the dirt near him, not even caring about dirtying her jeans. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, Apollo didn't even look up to her as he continued his work, instead muttering something in a strange language she couldn't quite identify. Another man behind them answered instead, "I came here this afternoon to see this tree rotting, I presume from its roots."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"The strange thing is," Apollo said, finally looking up to her, "This tree has been here for forever and I know for a fact that it was perfectly healthy just two days ago. I don't know much about most plants, but I do know that these types of trees can't just die this quickly." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche narrowed her eyes at him, questioning his knowledge about this seemingly random tree. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well," Psyche started, "What type of tree is it? I can try to look something up on my phone."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A wave of hurt seemed to pass over Apollo's eyes as he answered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"It's a cyprus."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After trying to help the dying tree for like two hours, everyone there determined that there was nothing left they could do. Psyche was getting ready to leave, the sun already starting to go down, turning the sky pink and purple. However, she stopped and turned back around when she realized that Apollo was still sitting on the bench, dirt covering his hands and clothes, but he didn't seem to care at all. He was just looking at the tree, an anguished look on his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche set her backpack down again and walked over, sitting near Apollo on the bench, their knees clanging together. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You did everything you could." Psyche said. Although she didn't really know why Apollo cared so much about a tree, she knew that he was mourning its loss and wouldn't judge him for it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I could have done more. If only I had realized early..." Apollo sighed and leaned his head against Psyche's shoulder, "I just feel like everything I love is dying."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche only then remembered that Apollo's sister had just died as well, and decided that he was probably still in a sensitive state so that's why he was taking the tree's death so harshly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Look, I don't know what to say... but it'll get better. I know it." Psyche said, leaning her head against Apollo's.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I hope so. I really do."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche walked home with Apollo a bit, happy to reconnect with him because they hadn't really talked since her falling out with Aphrodite. They had been good friends in the past. They parted with a hug and Psyche walked the rest of the way to her house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When she arrived home, the rest of her family had already eaten so she grabbed some leftovers from the fridge and heated them up. After she finished eating, she walked through the hallways to get to her bedroom. She heard whispering behind one of the doors, so she opened it to see her two sisters sitting on the bed, giggling to each other. However, when they heard the door open, they stopped, looking up at Psyche with nervous looks on their face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Get out!" They said in unison. Psyche held her hands out in a placating way and turned around, slamming the door behind her not to quietly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche didn't know why her sisters hated her so much, it's not like she did anything to them. However, for some reason they couldn't stand her presence, and they always seemed to be planning something behind her back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They liked to play pranks on her, normally they were harmless like moving her furniture in her room all around, but one time they changed her shampoo with hair dye, and Psyche flipped out on them. Luckily, their parents took her side and punished her sisters for it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now that she thought about it, Psyche realized that maybe her sisters hated her because her parents always took her side. It's not like they didn't have a reason not to, however, since her sisters were terrible at hiding their plans and were normally thwarted before they could even be set in motion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche just sighed before continuing to walk to her room which was a bit further down the hallway. She just wanted to get along with her sisters and for them not to be constantly jealous of her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Psyche reached her bedroom she got to work on her homework before quickly remembering that it was a long weekend. As she was placing her papers back into her backpack, Psyche heard the door opening and looked up to see her mother in the frame, a gentle smile on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Can I come in?" Her mom asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Sure," Psyche nodded, patting next to her on the bed, indicating that her mom should take a seat. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mother took the gesture and sat down gracefully, her smile only marred by the slight worried look in her eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"How are you doing, Psyche? I feel like I haven't been able to talk to you about school for the past couple of days." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche sighed and turned to face her mom. There was no way that she was going to tell her about what happened, so she lied, "It's been going well... I actually spoke to Aphrodite today and we didn't fight or argue."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mom's smile widened at that, "That's great, so do you think that you two will become friends again? I know how much it hurt you when you stopped talking to each other."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I don't know," Psyche said, "Probably not, but at least it's a start."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche's mom looked like she was going to say something else, but she stopped when she glanced down at her jeans with the knees covered in dirt. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What happened to your pants?" She asked, trying to wipe away the specks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ah, right. It was really strange." Psyche then recounted her tale of seeing the dying tree and trying to help and revive it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mom shook her head and laughed a little at her words, "I remember when you were friends with Apollo. That boy always seemed a little strange."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche laughed with her as they recounted the tales of mischief and fun when she used to hang out with the 'gods.'</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Ooof," Psyche's mom said when she looked over at the clock, "I should probably head to bed, I have an early morning ahead of me. Goodnight, Psyche."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"'Night mom." Psyche waved to her and closed the door after her mother left. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Looking at the time, Psyche determined that she should probably also go to sleep, so after her quick nighttime routine, she was in bed with the lights off, eyes closing after the eventful day. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, she wasn't given much rest for a couple of minutes after she had drifted off, she heard a knock at the door. Blinking her eyes wearily she assumed it was her mother again, maybe she forgot something when she came to talk to Psyche.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, when Psyche opened the door, no one was there. It was only then that she realized that the knocking hadn't come from the door, it had come from the curtained window. Psyche swallowed thickly and made her way towards the wall. She had seen enough horror movies to know that knocking at the window was never a good sign. But then again, who could it be? She lived on the second floor of her house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>These thoughts, however, did nothing to soothe her nerves, and Psyche approached the window with imagination running wild. She was preparing to see some sort of demon flying at eye level, however, to her shock, there was nothing there, either. Had she just imagined the sound?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, however, a rock flew from the ground and hit the window, causing Psyche to look down at the ground to see a shadowy figure in the darkness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He stepped out into the porch light illuminating his beautiful features. It was Eros. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What are you doing here?" Psyche whispered harshly down at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I found your address in Aphrodite's phone, and I just wanted to make sure you're ok." Eros said, voice low and quiet. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Are you some sort of stalker or something--"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"NO!" Eros yelled then quickly looked around and repeated in a whisper, "no. It's just... I know this doesn't really help with the claims that I'm a stalker. But I just feel connected to you for some reason. Like we should know each other."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche sighed, "Yeah, I feel the same way." Eros' face visibly brightened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Look, can we meet tomorrow at the café. I need to tell you about what happened yesterday in the woods." Eros said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yeah, alright." Psyche started before adding hastily, "I don't really trust you yet... but I'll meet you there. Let's say 12ish?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eros nodded, "I'll see you there. Goodbye, Psyche."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He left so quickly that to Psyche it almost seemed as if he had flown away. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche's night was once again interrupted when she woke up from another one of her strange dreams. This time, however, she was in a sort of funeral processions, except where they would normally carry the dead body, Psyche was being carried. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone around her were weeping and groaning, saying that she was too young to die. Psyche saw her mother, father, and sisters and tried to get all of their attention to tell them that she wasn't actually dead, but none of them listened to her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Instead the procession continued until they arrived at a rocky cliff on the water. The gloomy sky and harsh waves crashing on the rock seemed to imitate the moods of all the mourners. However, Psyche was surprised to see that the area wasn't set up like a funeral was going to occur-- there was neither a pyre nor a plot of land to bury a body-- but instead there was a sort of altar. Like for a wedding. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Psyche looked down and noticed that she was dressed in traditional bridal garb. As her family set her down at the altar, they all turned and left, pausing to kiss her on the forehead once each. She tried to stop them all from leaving, confused about why she was there, but she was only able to get an answer from one of the younger boys there. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What's going on? Why am I here?" Psyche asked him, gripping his forearm harshly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy sighed before extracting himself from her hand and saying, "This is where you will be sacrificed to the monster."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"What? Why?" She asked him, now scared for her life. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The boy gave her a strange look and answered, "Don't you remember? The oracle said you are to marry this creature."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before Psyche could question further, the boy left, leaving her alone with her clear engagement. Psyche started weeping and begging someone to help her, for she was tied down to the stone so as not to escape. However, after hours of yelling, she had lost her voice and was now growing weary. She decided that she would accept this marriage, hoping only that her death would be quick and painless. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As she slipped into unconsciousness, however, she saw the heavens opening up into light above her, and a faint sweet-smelling breeze began to pick up, juxtaposing the sharp scent of the sea. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And as she finally lost her grip on wakefulness, she felt a soft hand run over her hair soothingly, then pick her up, seemingly to take her to her death. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you liked this chapter, and as always comments are always appreciated. <br/>I'm so excited with where this story is going... and I hope you all are, too. <br/>Did you get that little reference to Cyparissus with the tree? 😉 <br/>Next chapter will be when things begin to finally make sense. Hopefully I'll have it done in a couple of days... but we'll see. It's a long boi.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. We Men Are Wretched Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Chapter title comes from The Iliad by Homer, Book 24, line 613-614 which says:<br/>"So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men live on to bear such torments-- the gods live free of sorrows. </p>
<p>Hey guys, sorry it's been like literally thirty years since I last updated, but I feel like I have an excuse since I just started college, and a bachelor's in physics is no joke. </p>
<p>Anyways, so since I've been super busy, I'm gonna try and update like either once a week or once every two weeks, just depending on if I have any exams or anything. </p>
<p>I hope you enjoy this long as heck chapter to make up for the past like two months, and like always, comment and like if you enjoy. Please heed the warnings for this chapter, it's gonna get a little rough.<br/> (Also, do you like how I'm finally branching away from using Metamorphoses for my chapter titles)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was bored out of his mind as he sat, slumped over in his chair in the church that his dad forced him to attend. The priest’s droning voice grated his nerves and made him want to cover his ears and scream so loud that he couldn’t hear a single sound. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then again, Hyacinthus was probably just being dramatic since he was anxious to finish the Saturday night service so that he could go over to Zephyrus’ house for the date that they had planned. And, Hyacinthus crossed his fingers, hopefully he would be able to stay the night. He wasn’t quite sure if he was really ready to take the next step, after all they had only met like five days earlier, however he felt like he had known Zephyrus his whole life and if he was going to cross the proverbial line with anyone, he would like it to be him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally, the priest ended his ranting and the congregation stood up to sing another hymn with terrible vocals coming from the audience and the performers alike. Honestly, though, Hyacinthus didn’t really hate going to church with his father if only because it was with his father. Hyacinthus yearned for the days when they would spend hours together, playing board games or cooking or anything. Recently his father was getting busier and busier with his job so that he could afford the cost of living in this expensive city, so Hyacinthus had seen him less and less. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was just scared that one day he would look back at all the time he wasted and wish that he had spent more of it with the friends and family that he loved. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After the song finished, Hyacinthus and his father stood up and made their way quickly to the exit, neither of them keen on making small talk with the intense and judgy people who also attended their church. There were a few good people, such as, a kid from his school named Hylas who he had biology with, but for the most part, the church was full of middle-aged, white parents who would point out any small flaw in anybody. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the two of them snuck out the back entrance, Hyacinthus was shocked to see the familiar figure of Zephyrus, leaning against his car wearing a crisp black suit, similar to those that most of the men were wearing inside the building. Hyacinthus instantly blushed after making eye contact with him and suddenly felt self-conscious about his own, admittedly, casual slacks and a polo. However, that feeling went away quickly when Zephyrus gave his signature grin to him, and Hyacinthus hurried up to reach him and greet him with a tight hug. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was strange, Hyacinthus thought, that Zephyrus always hugged him as if this was the last time that they would ever be in each other's arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, Zephyrus. How are you, son?” Hyacinthus’ father asked the older boy, mirth clearly present on his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus, bless his soul, didn’t pull away from Hyacinthus’ arms as he responded, “I’m quite well sir, how are you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus’ dad laughed at the formal title Zephyrus had used, but made no move to correct him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine, thank you for asking.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After this short exchange followed by a breath of awkward silence, Hyacinthus finally stepped away from his boyfriend, and reached out to grab one of his father’s hands. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Father,” he said, “I’m going over to Zephyrus’ house today. Is that alright?” Hyacinthus knew that he technically didn’t need his dad’s permission (his dad already established that rule) , but he also wanted him to like Zephyrus and he felt like the only way that could happen was if they were extremely careful around his dad and more formal than normal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His dad seemed to give Zephyrus a once over, before nodding with an expression gracing his features that seemed to imitate sternness but didn’t quite reach that level, “You’ll have him home unharmed by tomorrow morning, correct?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh don’t worry,” Zephyrus replied smoothly, “I’ll have him home by ten o’clock tonight, at the latest.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At this, Hyacinthus’ father had approval clearly written on his face, but Hyacinthus himself couldn’t help but frown. They had planned to at least be together until around eleven at the earliest, and, like mentioned before, Hyacinthus was hoping that he would be able to spend the night. A notion that hadn’t been confirmed nor denied by Zephyrus until that very moment. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After saying his farewell to his father, Hyacinthus and Zephyrus climbed into the sleek black vehicle that Zephyrus had driven to pick him up. Hyacinthus reached across the seats to turn down the music that started playing as soon as the car actually turned on. Zephyrus frowned and looked at Hyacinthus before setting back out of the parking spot, but he didn’t say anything, probably noticing the slight frown that was on Hyacinthus’ face and was hoping that he would tell him what ailed him himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After a couple of seconds of complete silence except for the noises that were coming from the exterior of the car, Hyacinthus finally sighed and turned to face Zephyrus, “Eight o’clock?” He asked, “I was hoping to stay at least till ten...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus’ face stayed impassive while they passed under a few more stop lights, when finally he decided to answer, “My parents are coming back later tonight, I thought it would probably be better for you to be gone by then.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do they not approve of you?” Hyacinthus asked, after hearing Zephyrus’ statement, he was no longer mad at him and was instead worried that they would have to break-up after being together for only a short couple of days. “That is to say, Hyacinthus continued, would they not approve of us?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus looked over at Hyacinthus, and probably noticing his posture which had drawn in on itself as if he were nervous of the response that Zephyrus would give, Zephyrus instantly began to try to soothe Hyacinthus’ worries.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, no, of course they would approve of us. I’m not ashamed of being with you, and it’s not that I don’t want my parents to meet you.” Zephyrus said, while pulling up into the driveway to his house.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus responded, “Then what is it? Why can’t I meet them at least for a couple of minutes or so?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus sighed and placed his hand on top of Hyacinthus head, ruffling it playfully causing him to roll his eyes fondly. “Look,” Zephyrus began, “they’re only going to be here for tomorrow, just one day. I simply think it would make more sense for you to meet one another when there is more time to become acquainted. Is that alright?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was skeptical for a moment, before he looked over at Zephyrus giving him puppy dog eyes. Hyacinthus rolled his eyes again before nodding and saying, “yes, yes that’s alright.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that, Zephyrus leaned over and pressed a soft kiss into Hyacinthus’ cheek. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, let’s go on in then,” He said to Hyacinthus, “I’ve got a great meal planned for the two of us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And a great meal it was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus had prepared the traditional Greek, lentil soup called fakes along with some delicious homemade pita bread. Hyacinthus was ecstatic to see his boyfriend pull out another honey cake for the two of them to gorge themselves on after dinner, as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Once they had finished putting away any of the leftovers and cleaning up the dishes, they sat in the living room, with the tv on, but neither of them were really even certain which program was running. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was about ten o’clock when Zephyrus finally pulled his lips away from Hyacinthus’, and he unwrapped Hyacinthus’ legs from around his torso. Hyacinthus frowned and was about to start complaining about the lack of contact, but he was stopped by Zephyrus placing a finger on his lips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You should probably start getting ready to go now,” he said to Hyacinthus, “If you want me to drive you home then we’ll need to leave in about ten minutes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can walk,” Hyacinthus replied desperately before pulling Zephyrus back down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Another thirty minutes later, Zephyrus pulled away again and insisted that Hyacinthus really did have to go now, since he had to prepare the house for his parents arrival. So, with a sorrow-filled heart and cheeks and lips a pretty blushed-red, Hyacinthus took the steps down the porch and started his way towards his own house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a clear, warm night with a slight breeze, so Hyacinthus was content to simply stick his hands in his jacket pocket and lean his head back to look at the beautiful stars and constellations that filled the night sky. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was very happy to note that he was even able to see the stars in the first place here, since in his old city, there was way too much light pollution to get a clear view of the night sky during most nights. Noticing a bench near a small park, Hyacinthus sat down so that he could safely look up and try to name any constellations that he might recognize. Unfortunately, he had always been terrible at that, so after a couple of minutes, he sighed and got back up again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he was walking this time, Hyacinthus saw an old man standing outside of his house on the path that he was travelling, so Hyacinthus waved to him. Once he approached closer, however, Hyacinthus was surprised to see that it wasn't any random old man and in fact it was actually his favorite teacher at the school, it was Chiron!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Hello, Hyacinthus," Chiron said as the boy approached his professor, "What are you doing out on such a lovely night as this?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus smiled and responded, "Well I was just coming back from a friend's house, and I got distracted by looking up at the stars. They're beautiful, aren't they?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron looked up with a sigh and said, "Yes, they are. Do you happen to know any of the constellations?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, but I've always wanted to be able to simply point them out wherever I am. Unfortunately, I'm not creative enough to pick out the shapes by myself."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Nonsense," Chiron practically exclaimed, "Anyone can learn them if they simply have a good enough teacher, and not to sound cocky or anything, but I happen to be an excellent teacher."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them laughed together at that, then Hyacinthus said, "Alright, tell me, which constellations are visible tonight?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron looked up thoughtfully before pointing out a cluster of six stars that seemed to form a sort of bent line, "See those, Hyacinthus? Those stars make up the bow of the constellation Orion. If you look really closely, you can see the torso as well as the three stars that make the belt. Do you see?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus squinted up at the sky, but to his chagrin, all he could see were clusters and lines of stars, "No, I don't understand. How am I supposed to see anything out of these. It's like connect-the-dots done by a five-year old who can't count yet." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron chuckled as Hyacinthus fell dramatically into the chair that Chiron had been previously sitting in, "You do need a bit of imagination to actually see the constellations, but once you see it, it's a magical experience."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus just sighed again, not bothering with a verbal response.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You know," Chiron began,"They say that his constellation, Orion, that is, actually was a man who was put into the stars by the gods after he died."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"That doesn't make any sense though; we all know that stars are just giant balls of gas thousands of light-years away from Earth. So are you saying that the so-called "gods" turned a man into stars?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"I can see that you're skeptical," Chiron began and Hyacinthus snorted in response. "Do you have a religion that you practice? Of course, you don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yes, I go to church every Saturday night with my father. I guess you would call me a Christian," Hyacinthus responded. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Then is it really so hard to see the similarities in some aspects of the two religions?" Chiron asked, "Your God put a rainbow in the sky because he loved humanity and my gods but people in the stars when they loved them." </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well... I guess so. But what religion are you even talking about?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron winked and responded,"I think you know, Hyacinthus, after all didn't you read those papers in the textbook that I lent you?" </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus whirled around to look at his teacher, afraid that he would be punished for reading something he wasn't supposed to, "I'm sorry, sir, I thought that they were part of the book, and when I realized that they weren't, I had already finished them."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chuckling and shaking his head, Chiron said, "No, it's alright, child, I wouldn't have given you that copy if I didn't want you to read those pages."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Is it true, then? Were those actually stories from Ancient Greek tradition." Hyacinthus asked and Chiron nodded in response, "But I thought that they were all lost to time. If they are authentic, then you need to bring them somewhere, to some historians or something. This is such a great discovery."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"No, no, these are secrets that the world isn't ready to know yet. Besides, who would believe that they were truly ancient stories, when they were hand-typed by an English professor from the middle of nowhere? No, I think it best to keep it a secret for now."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sort of disagreed with this decision that Chiron made, but he also understood where he was coming from, it was true, no one would believe him. But Hyacinthus did, and he wanted to know more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"There's another thing that perplexed me about those stories." He said and paused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Yes, what is it?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Well, it's just that, like we established before, no one else has heard or read them before," Chiron nodded, "Then why are some people at this school named after the same characters in the story? Why did his parents name him, Apollo, if they don't know anything about Greek mythology?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron sighed before sitting on the sidewalk in front of Hyacinthus (who had already taken his chair). "That is a complicated question," He said to Hyacinthus, "And I would argue that his parents in fact didn't know the Greek myths but instead came up with the name Apollo themselves."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That doesn’t make any sense,” Hyacinthus claimed, “How could they just come up with that name, and it happens to be the name of a god of a long-lost religion?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, Chiron seemed to have had enough of that conversation, as he started the next sentence, “That constellation, Orion, would you like to hear the story behind it?” He didn’t really seem to care if Hyacinthus wanted to or not, for he began his tale anyways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The goddess, Artemis, was the deity of the hunt and the moon, her brother, in fact was our very own Apollo. She was a virgin and she swore to never fall in love with anyone. However, she failed that very promise when she met the hunter, Orion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He was beautiful, and he was amazing with a bow, the weapon of choice for the goddess herself. They spent their days prancing through the forests, chasing deer and other animals then swimming in ice-cold lakes and rivers. They were happy, and Artemis found herself falling in love with a man, which she swore never to do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Hyacinthus interrupted, “Why would the goddess turn him into a constellation if she was in love with him? Wouldn’t she just as quickly make him immortal like herself?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hush child, let me finish the story. Like I said before, Artemis’ brother was Apollo, the god of the sun and healing, among other things. It is significant, isn’t it, that a brother and a sister would represent the sun and the moon, two things which are seemingly different but at the same time are the same in all the ways that matter. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Apollo, this was back when he was an inexperienced youth, you see, was furious at the hunter Orion, thinking that he was taking advantage of the maiden-hood of his sister. Thus, one night when Artemis was driving the moon across the sky, Apollo snuck up on Orion and slaughtered him, so that he couldn’t again take advantage of his sister. However, he realized the mistake he had made when Artemis returned to weep over his dead body, begging her brother to bring him back to life, after all he was the god of healing, surely he could heal even this? But it was too late. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As an apology, Apollo convinced his father, the king of the gods, to place Artemis’ lover in the sky as a constellation, so that every night his sister could join Orion for at least a while as she made her journey with the moon.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sat there in silence for a couple of seconds while he processed the story, before he looked over at Chiron, “I mean, it’s a good story and all, but to me it just seems like some drunk man looked up into the sky and vaguely saw the shape of a man then made up this story. It just doesn’t seem very realistic, like if I was in love with someone and my brother killed them, oh you already know that my brother would be dead as well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron laughed a little at that, then he patted Hyacinthus shoulder, “You don’t have to believe the stories, that’s not the point of them. The point is to explain to people why things exist in nature, and remember these Greeks didn’t know much about science, or at least not as much as we did.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them sat together in silence for a couple more minutes, before Chiron stood back up, “Well, I’m going to head back inside, you’re welcome to stay out here for as long as you want, or you can return home. I’ll see you on Monday, Hyacinthus.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you, Chiron.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chiron nodded before making his way indoors.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sat outside for a couple of minutes longer, then reached into his backpack to take his phone out and find what time it was. There was a problem, however, for no matter how long Hyacinthus searched in his bag, dumping everything out even, he couldn’t find his phone. Then, he remembered placing it on one of the tables in Zephyrus’ house. He must have forgotten it there!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus knew that Zephyrus didn’t want him meeting his parents just yet, but surely he would forgive him if he simply slipped in and grabbed his phone. In fact, he could just get Zephyrus to grab it for him, he wouldn’t even have to go inside. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that, Hyacinthus repacked, then shouldered his backpack and made the slightly long trek back to his boyfriend’s house, hoping that his dad wouldn’t get mad at him when he eventually returned home, hours later than he said he would. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>---</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus reached his boyfriend's house about thirty minutes after he left. He cursed himself when he saw the time, it was already midnight and he would have at least an hour walk back to his house. His father was going to kill him when he got home, and Zephyrus probably wouldn't be too happy when he realized that he was walking home alone in the dark. Of course, Hyacinthus agreed with that, he was definitely going to be walking directly under the street lights, not wanting to risk being attacked by anyone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he neared the front door, with the intention of ringing the doorbell and hoping to all gods that it was Zephyrus who answered, Hyacinthus heard the slight sound of laughter coming from inside. Luckily, he had enough sense to quickly dart around the side of the house, for a couple of seconds later, the door was opened and Zephyrus walked outside. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He appeared to have a bag in his hand filled with some sort of garbage, and he was probably bringing it to throw in the dumpster. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus was about three seconds from revealing himself to Zephyrus, when suddenly he heard a loud, masculine voice booming from inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You coming, Zeph? I don't want you to miss out." Hyacinthus thought that he heard the voice before, but he couldn't  place where it was from. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zephyrus, however, knew exactly who it was, since he responded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, Zeus. Just hold your horses." He had a soft grin on his face as he threw out the trash and then entered back into the house, closing and locking (Hyacinthus heard the click) the door behind him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus, however, was stuck in a daze as he stood still concealed in the shadows of the house. Had Zephyrus lied to him?He had told him that his parents were coming over tonight, but Zeus was obviously not his dad. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Was Zephyrus having some sort of party that he didn't want to tell Hyacinthus about? Even though they had only known each other for about a week, and had dated for even less time, Hyacinthus still felt a pang of grief deep in his heart. He knew that there was inevitably going to be a fight that resulted from this, probably, misunderstanding, and Hyacinthus didn't think their still fragile relationship could handle that. Hyacinthus really did like Zephyrus and he didn't want to lose him already. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He walked around the house trying to find an alternative entrance point to not make his presence known. Once he had circled around the house one time, he reached the back again where he looked up and saw a window that was slightly cracked open. The light didn't seem to be on so that was good since it meant that there probably wasn't anyone inside there. But, the window was on the third floor of the house, so Hyacinthus would have to climb the tree near the house in order to get in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He walked over to the tall tree and tried to jump and reach the lowest hanging branch. However, he was just slightly too short and he couldn't reach it, even with a running start. So, his fingers gripped painfully into the bark and Hyacinthus began to haul himself up the trunk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally, once he had reached the top branches, Hyacinthus noticed the flaw in his plan: there was about a ten foot jump from the branch to the window. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus contemplated going down and just returning the next day to retrieve his phone from Zephyrus' house, however, once he looked down and saw the long journey it would take to get back down to the ground, he decided it wasn't worth it. He would most likely fall anyways so he might as well attempt the leap. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He braced himself on the branch and then jumped, knocking his knees and legs on the wall, and barely grasping the ledge with his fingers. The wind was knocked out of him so he had to pause for a moment before he hauled himself up the ledge, and opened the window so he could roll in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus lay on the ground of the dark room he entered, looking around to try to determine where he was. However, he noticed a strange thing which was that the room was basically empty, there was no furniture and no decorations on the wall save for a single painting near the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He approached it, making sure to stay in the shadows and not the light that was being cast from the hallway and into the open door. Hyacinthus couldn't make out exactly what the picture was, since the shadows made it pretty hard to tell, but he could see that there seemed to be two men in a sort of embrace. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Actually, the closer he got, the more clear the picture became. It wasn't two men hugging like he had assumed at first, instead it was one man holding another who seemed to have fainted or something. The strange thing, however, was that the face of the conscious man seemed to be ripped out completely of the tapestry, as if someone had taken a knife and just cut out an imperfection. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As Hyacinthus was looking at the picture, the sound of voices drew neared until he could tell that they were coming from right outside of the door. He quickly hid behind the open door, hoping that he wouldn't get caught in his breaking and entering. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Where did we leave that boy, again?" Zeus asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"Why the hell would I know?" A more feminine voice answered, although Hyacinthus couldn't quite make out who it was, "Weren't you the one who chained him up?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Chained him up? Now Hyacinthus was extremely confused about what was going on at his boyfriend's house. This seemed much more sinister than a simple, secret party. But, Hyacinthus couldn't believe that Zephyrus would ever really do anything evil. He did have some flaws, but he was a good man... right?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus had to press himself up against the wall as the two of them entered the lights in the room he was in. Seeming to realize that the man they were looking for wasn’t in this room, they exited, closing the door behind them. Hyacinthus let out a long breath of relief, then he carefully leaned against the door, pressing his ear against it to wait for the sound of footsteps leaving the hall. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After a couple of minutes, he heard the steps, however there was also the sound of something being dragged along with them. Luckily, there was a small keyhole in the door that Hyacinthus could peek out of. He almost jumped back in horror, however, as he saw the figure of another boy being dragged behind the two other teens. The boy seemed to be knocked unconscious, noticeable from the large gash on the side of his head, and the fact that his eyes were closed. Hyacinthus went back to look through the keyhole, and he realized that he actually knew who that boy was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was Theseus, who Hyacinthus knew because he was also on the track team with him. He was never really liked by most of the people at the school since he was very arrogant and basically he was a fuck boy. However, that didn’t mean he deserved what was about to happen to him now... whatever that might be. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After Zeus and the girl dragged Theseus down the stairs, Hyacinthus waited for a second before opening the door quietly and following them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He carefully made his way out of the room, making sure to step lightly so the floorboards didn't creak behind him. Hyacinthus got to the top of the stairs, and he looked down at them. Luckily, no one was there waiting to jump out at him and grab him to do with what they were doing with Theseus. There was a small trail of blood leading down the steps that must have come from the head of the unconscious boy, but Hyacinthus made his way down them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When he arrived at the base of the steps, he was shocked to see that there was no one else downstairs with him. There weren't even any sounds of people occupying the area, it was as if they had all simply got up and left. Hyacinthus breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way into the living room where he had left his cell phone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>To his delight, it was still sitting exactly where it had been haphazardly thrown when he and Zephyrus were... occupied on the couch. He picked it up and placed it into his pocket, making his way to the front door so he could leave, before he remembered the sight of Theseus being dragged through the hallways. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus knew that he couldn't just leave that boy here, what if they were going to do something bad to him? So, against all his better judgement, Hyacinthus, instead of walking towards the door, took a step further into the house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He searched through every single room that Zephyrus had shown him; the kitchen, the dining room, his bedroom, everywhere. Yet, there was absolutely no sign of the other teens. Hyacinthus was about to just give up, and he contemplated calling the police before he realized that he would probably get in trouble for breaking into the house. However, as he turned to go back out the front door, he saw it. A small pool of blood near the bookshelf in the living room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>How had he not noticed this before?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus crouched down to inspect the blood, realized it was fresh, and determined that this must have come from Theseus. He looked around the room one more time to try to find some sort of door that he had missed the first time, but once again there was nothing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus sat down abruptly into the couch, huffing out a breath of frustration. Where had they gone?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked back over at the bookshelf where the pile of blood was, when suddenly it hit him. He remembered tons of movies that he had watched where the entrances to the secret hideouts were hidden behind a bookshelf. But it couldn't be that easy, could it?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus got to work pulling out every single book, hoping that one of them would be the trigger to slide the bookshelf away, but to no avail. It stayed firmly in place. Hyacinthus kicked the bookshelf in frustration before taking a step back and calming himself to try to come up with a plan. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He realized that he had thought about it too hard, when he noticed a small latch on the side of the bookshelf. He opened it, and suddenly the door slid upon silently, revealing a set of stone steps leading into the unknown basement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus steeled himself for a second, trying to decide if he really did want to go down there. He took one step forward, before turning around and running into the kitchen, grabbing the biggest kitchen knife he could find. With that in hand, he returned to the secret tunnel and started his descent into the darkness. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>--</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sound of his tennis shoes hitting the stone steps echoed loudly in the small stairwell, so Hyacinthus made the quick decision to remove his shoes and place them in his backpack. Now, walking carefully in just his socks, Hyacinthus had to focus on his breathing which was quickly becoming out of control from anxiety. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What was he going to find down here? Like mentioned before, Hyacinthus and Zephyrus had only been dating for a couple of days, but Hyacinthus really did feel like he could trust him with his life. But maybe he was wrong. Maybe Zephyrus was secretly part of some sort of secret agency that tortured young teens in their basements. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus could forgive a lot, but that would be a definite deal-breaker. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally, when he reached the bottom of the steps, he was now engulfed in complete darkness, Hyacinthus used his hands to feel around to find a wall. What he touched was a cold, stone wall that seemed to be a bit wet, as if it were covered in water. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He used the wall to walk further into the darkness, however, the further he got, the brighter the hallway actually became until he found himself at the edge of the hallway which led into a sort of large chamber that was filled with torches instead of any electric light. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus had to press himself against the wall as he saw the shadow of a man moving in the room. Once again it was Zeus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He seemed to be setting up a sort of ceremony, placing flowers and other types of plants onto a stone slab that had been placed in the middle of the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luckily, the hallway was basically out of view from the main part of the chamber, so Hyacinthus could look around without being spotted and probably murdered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could see that there were about ten people in the room, and all of them were from his school. The only ones he recognized were Zeus, and Aphrodite, but the others were definitely people who were in the "popular" kids group, the "gods" as they were so-called at his school. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a slight murmur going on in the background from all the teens who were talking among themselves, but Hyacinthus couldn't really pay attention to what they were saying, more focused on what they were wearing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They seemed to have what simply looked like a large piece of cloth, wrapped around their torsos and upper legs to barely cover them. In a way, they sort of looked like dresses, but extremely simple ones. They were all wearing these “tunics” in a light grey color, except for Zeus who was wearing a white one that had gold lining the edges. He was also wearing what looked to be a crown of golden leaves on his head, seeming to show that he was some type of royalty or something. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus flinched as a loud burst of laughter came from one of the teens who was holding a goblet that was splashing some sort of dark liquid on the ground, presumably wine since his lips were smeared with the same liquid. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Calm down, won’t you,” Zeus said, turning towards the boy who had just laughed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry, daddy,” the boy said and Hyacinthus frowned, was this really the time to have weird sexual foreplay? “I’m just so excited to meet our new... friend.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A low, familiar, chuckle sounded as Zephyrus came into view, holding up Theseus who was now conscious but seemed to be drugged as he didn’t really seem to comprehend anything he was saying. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, here he is,” Zephyrus said, “the man of the hour. Theseus, slayer of the Minotaur himself.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A mocking cheer sounded as two of the other men went over to Zephyrus to help him drag Theseus onto the stone table that was now covered in different petals and flowers. Hyacinthus found himself contemplating the words “slayer of the Minotaur,” but he was stopped in his reflections, when he saw Zeus pull out a large, curved blade from seemingly nowhere. It took everything in Hyacinthus to not gasp out loud at the reveal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well my sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,” Zeus said, stepping close to the mostly unaware Theseus, “it has been far too long since we have feasted on mortal blood.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Theseus, having seen the blade, started whimpering and muttering incoherently, but the rest of the crowd ignored him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man with the wine glass laughed at Zeus’ statement, “What, it’s been like, a week? Don’t think we don’t know about Cyparissus.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rest of the teens shuffled around nervously and let out soft giggles at his exclamation. Zeus, however, fixed him with a hard glare, and the boy took a step back, warily, behind some of the other teens. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let us begin.” Zeus said, and the rest of the group formed a circle around him and the table.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus wasn’t able to see what Zeus was doing, since the circle surrounded him so closely, but he could hear the sound of the group muttering and singing in some unknown language that seemed so lovely, but so deadly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could also hear the sound of Theseus’ whimpers and cries, until he couldn’t</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zeus held out a hand, high in the sky, which held the blade, now covered in blood. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now, we feast.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that statement, the group went into action, leaping onto the stone table with surprising speed and agility. Hyacinthus would never forget the sounds of tearing fresh and breaking bones, as the group all ate Theseus’ body as if it were a four-course meal. Hyacinthus had to turn around and run out of the room at the sounds and sights he saw, the horrific slaughter that had occurred. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He sprinted up the steps, barely preventing himself from falling onto the knife he had gripped firmly in his hand, and ran through the house at an alarming speed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hyacinthus slammed the front door open, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he ran into the now frigid night air. He still kept the knife clutched firmly in his hand and he didn’t even notice the pain from his feet hitting the rough gravel and cutting them open, since he had neglected to put his shoes back on. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He also didn’t notice the soft, warm, sweet-scented, breeze that seemed to follow him all the way home. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ooof, that was a long one. I hope you enjoyed this, significantly more violent than normal chapter. Also, did you notice the part where I was taking out my frustrations about my space science class and constellations 😉.<br/>Hopefully everything is sort of starting to come together and make sense, but if not, we still have about seven more chapters to go. <br/>Please comment if you enjoyed, and if you want to see where I get my inspiration for this story and many others, check out my tumblr:<br/>https://www.tumblr.com/blog/les-belles-esprits <br/>Or just look up the blog "les-belles-esprits" where I mostly just post painting of greek and roman mythology as well as (mostly classical) music. <br/>See you all soon!</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you so much for deciding to read this story!<br/>This is my first work so please don't be too harsh, but I would appreciate any constructive criticism or comments.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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